GPT-5.5 (medium) vs Qwen3 Coder Next
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.5 (medium) by OpenAI 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
GPT-5.5 (medium) scores 24.6 points higher (33.8 vs 9.2) but costs 4.4× as much to run the benchmark ($2095 vs $476; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-5.5 (medium) when you need intelligence above 9.2, and Qwen3 Coder Next when 9.2 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-5.5 (medium) | Qwen3 Coder Next | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 33.8 | 9.2 | −72.8% Qwen3 Coder Next is 72.8% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,095.12 | $476.23 | −77.3% Qwen3 Coder Next is 77.3% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 12.31s | 6.95s | −43.5% Qwen3 Coder Next is 43.5% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $5.00 / $30.0 | $0.35 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Qwen3 Coder Next vs GPT-5.5 (medium): 72.8% less intelligence, 77.3% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 43.5% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5.5 (medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Muse Spark 1.3 (max) scores 48.10 for $2000.
- Qwen3 Coder Next is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
GPT-5.5 (medium)Qwen3 Coder NextToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-5-medium/qwen3-coder-next · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-5-medium/qwen3-coder-next?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill