DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) vs Qwen3 Coder Next
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) by DeepSeek or Qwen3 Coder Next by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) scores 2.2 points higher (11.4 vs 9.2) but costs 1.1× as much to run the benchmark ($461 vs $405; both mid-range class). Pick DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Qwen3 Coder Next.
| Metric | DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) | Qwen3 Coder Next | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 11.4 | 9.2 | −19.3% Qwen3 Coder Next is 19.3% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $460.74 | $405.10 | −12.1% Qwen3 Coder Next is 12.1% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 20.19s | 6.22s | −69.2% Qwen3 Coder Next is 69.2% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $4.00 | $0.31 / $1.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text |
Qwen3 Coder Next vs DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25): 19.3% less intelligence, 12.1% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 69.2% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
- Qwen3 Coder Next is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25)Qwen3 Coder NextToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
Compare something else
Agents:
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-r1-0120/qwen3-coder-next · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-r1-0120/qwen3-coder-next?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill