Gemini 3.8 Flash (medium) vs Qwen3 Coder Next
Which is better for the money: Gemini 3.8 Flash (medium) by Google 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
Gemini 3.8 Flash (medium) scores 29.9 points higher (40.0 vs 10.1) but costs 2.3× as much to run the benchmark ($1100 vs $476; premium vs mid-range cost classes). Pick Gemini 3.8 Flash (medium) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Qwen3 Coder Next.
| Metric | Gemini 3.8 Flash (medium) | Qwen3 Coder Next | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 40.0 | 10.1 | −74.8% Qwen3 Coder Next is 74.8% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,100.06 | $476.03 | −56.7% Qwen3 Coder Next is 56.7% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 10.32s | 5.52s | −46.5% Qwen3 Coder Next is 46.5% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.75 / $3.75 | $0.35 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Not reported | Not reported |
Qwen3 Coder Next vs Gemini 3.8 Flash (medium): 74.8% less intelligence, 56.7% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 46.5% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Gemini 3.8 Flash (medium) 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.
Gemini 3.8 Flash (medium)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/gemini-3-8-flash-medium/qwen3-coder-next · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gemini-3-8-flash-medium/qwen3-coder-next?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill