DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) vs Qwen3 Coder Next
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) 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
Qwen3 Coder Next scores 0.7 points higher (9.2 vs 8.5) but costs 16× as much to run the benchmark ($405 vs $25.4; mid-range vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3 Coder Next when you need intelligence above 8.5, and DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) when 8.5 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) | Qwen3 Coder Next | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 8.5 | 9.2 | +8.2% Qwen3 Coder Next is 8.2% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $25.37 | $405.10 | +1496.8% Qwen3 Coder Next is 16× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 13.78s | 6.13s | −55.5% Qwen3 Coder Next is 55.5% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.32 / $0.89 | $0.31 / $1.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text |
Qwen3 Coder Next vs DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24): 8.2% more intelligence, 1496.8% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 55.5% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
- Qwen3 Coder Next is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24)Qwen3 Coder NextToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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