Compare/Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning) vs DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus (Reasoning)

Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning)vsDeepSeek V3.1 Terminus (Reasoning)

Side-by-side comparison of pricing, 12 benchmarks, and generation speed.

Alibaba

Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning)

Input
$0.7/M
Output
$2.8/M
Speed
64 tok/s
TTFT
1.26s
DeepSeek

DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus (Reasoning)

Input
$1.635/M
Output
$2.75/M
Speed
TTFT

Winner by Category

Cheaper
Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning)
Faster (tok/s)
Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning)
Lower Latency
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus (Reasoning)
Benchmarks (1-11)
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus (Reasoning)

Pricing Comparison

MetricQwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning)DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus (Reasoning)
Input ($/M tokens)$0.7$1.635
Output ($/M tokens)$2.8$2.75
Cost for 1M input + 100K output tokens:
Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning)$0.98
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus (Reasoning)$1.91

Speed Comparison

Output Speed (tokens/s) — higher is better
Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning)
64 tok/s
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus (Reasoning)
Time to First Token (seconds) — lower is better
Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning)
1.26s
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus (Reasoning)

Benchmark Comparison

Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks

Intelligence Index
10.930.4
Coding Index
43.5
Math Index
23.789.7
GPQA Diamond
61.3%79.2%
MMLU-Pro
76.2%85.1%
LiveCodeBench
34.3%79.8%
AIME 2025
23.7%89.7%
MATH-500
90.2%
Humanity's Last Exam
4.7%15.2%
SciCode
29.9%40.6%
IFBench
36.6%57.0%
TerminalBench
6.1%30.3%
Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning)1 wins
11 winsDeepSeek V3.1 Terminus (Reasoning)

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is cheaper, Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning) or DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus (Reasoning)?

Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning) is cheaper overall. Its blended price (3:1 input/output ratio) is $1.23/M tokens vs $1.91/M for DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus (Reasoning).

Which model performs better on benchmarks?

DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus (Reasoning) wins 11 out of 12 benchmarks compared to 1 for Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning). See the detailed benchmark chart above for per-category results.

Which is faster for real-time applications?

Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning) generates tokens faster at 64 tok/s vs 0 tok/s. However, DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus (Reasoning) has lower time-to-first-token (0.00s vs 1.26s).

When should I use Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning) vs DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus (Reasoning)?

Choose based on your priorities: Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning) for lower cost, DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus (Reasoning) for stronger benchmark performance, and Qwen3 235B A22B (Non-reasoning) for faster generation. For latency-sensitive apps, check the TTFT comparison above.