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 2026-07-17.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Qwen3 Coder Next scores 6.9 points higher (21.1 vs 14.2) but costs 12× as much to run the benchmark ($247 vs $19.8; mid-range vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3 Coder Next when you need intelligence above 14.2, and DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) when 14.2 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) | Qwen3 Coder Next | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 14.2 | 21.1 | +48.6% Qwen3 Coder Next is 48.6% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $19.84 | $247.26 | +1146.3% Qwen3 Coder Next is 12× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | Not reported | 6.61s | — not comparable |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.36 / $0.89 | $0.35 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Not reported | Not reported |
Qwen3 Coder Next vs DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24): 48.6% more intelligence, 1146.3% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and end-to-end time not fully reported.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
- Qwen3 Coder Next is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-5.6 Terra (medium) scores 45.60 for $240.
DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24)Qwen3 Coder NextToday's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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