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 2026-09-09.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Qwen3 Coder Next scores 1.6 points higher (10.1 vs 8.5) but costs 19× as much to run the benchmark ($476 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 | 10.1 | +18.8% Qwen3 Coder Next is 18.8% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $25.37 | $476.03 | +1776.4% Qwen3 Coder Next is 19× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | Not reported | 5.52s | — not comparable |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.32 / $0.89 | $0.35 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Not reported | Not reported |
Qwen3 Coder Next vs DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24): 18.8% more intelligence, 1776.4% 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 off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Granite 4.2 3B scores 9.10 for $14.9.
- Qwen3 Coder Next is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GLM-5.3-Flash scores 41.90 for $280.
DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24)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-v3/qwen3-coder-next · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-v3/qwen3-coder-next?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill