Claude Sonnet 5 (Adaptive Reasoning, Low Effort) vs Qwen3 Coder Next
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5 (Adaptive Reasoning, Low Effort) by Anthropic or Qwen3 Coder Next by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-09-09.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Sonnet 5 (Adaptive Reasoning, Lo… scores 14.6 points higher (24.7 vs 10.1) but costs 1.4× as much to run the benchmark ($653 vs $476; premium vs mid-range cost classes). Pick Claude Sonnet 5 (Adaptive Reasoning, Lo… when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Qwen3 Coder Next.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5 (Adaptive Reasoning, Low Effort) | Qwen3 Coder Next | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 24.7 | 10.1 | −59.1% Qwen3 Coder Next is 59.1% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $652.70 | $476.03 | −27.1% Qwen3 Coder Next is 27.1% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 9.40s | 5.52s | −41.3% Qwen3 Coder Next is 41.3% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $0.35 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Not reported | Not reported |
Qwen3 Coder Next vs Claude Sonnet 5 (Adaptive Reasoning, Low Effort): 59.1% less intelligence, 27.1% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 41.3% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5 (low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GLM-5.3-Flash scores 41.90 for $280.
- Qwen3 Coder Next is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GLM-5.3-Flash scores 41.90 for $280.
Claude Sonnet 5 (Adaptive Reasoning, Low Effort)Qwen3 Coder NextToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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