Gemini 3.8 Flash (high) vs Qwen3 Coder Next
Which is better for the money: Gemini 3.8 Flash (high) by Google or Qwen3 Coder Next by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-09-22.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Gemini 3.8 Flash (high) scores 31.7 points higher (40.9 vs 9.2) but costs 3.4× as much to run the benchmark ($1623 vs $476; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Gemini 3.8 Flash (high) when you need intelligence above 9.2, and Qwen3 Coder Next when 9.2 is enough.
| Metric | Gemini 3.8 Flash (high) | Qwen3 Coder Next | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 40.9 | 9.2 | −77.5% Qwen3 Coder Next is 77.5% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,622.73 | $476.23 | −70.7% Qwen3 Coder Next is 70.7% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 16.92s | 6.95s | −58.9% Qwen3 Coder Next is 58.9% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.75 / $3.75 | $0.35 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text |
Qwen3 Coder Next vs Gemini 3.8 Flash (high): 77.5% less intelligence, 70.7% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 58.9% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Gemini 3.8 Flash (high) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
- Qwen3 Coder Next is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
Gemini 3.8 Flash (high)Qwen3 Coder NextToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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