GPT-5.6 Sol (low) vs Qwen3 Coder Next
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.6 Sol (low) by OpenAI 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
GPT-5.6 Sol (low) scores 28.3 points higher (49.4 vs 21.1) but costs 1.4× as much to run the benchmark ($353 vs $247; both mid-range class). Pick GPT-5.6 Sol (low) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Qwen3 Coder Next.
| Metric | GPT-5.6 Sol (low) | Qwen3 Coder Next | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 49.4 | 21.1 | −57.3% Qwen3 Coder Next is 57.3% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $353.49 | $247.26 | −30.1% Qwen3 Coder Next is 30.1% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 13.44s | 6.61s | −50.8% Qwen3 Coder Next is 50.8% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $5.00 / $30.0 | $0.35 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Not reported | Not reported |
Qwen3 Coder Next vs GPT-5.6 Sol (low): 57.3% less intelligence, 30.1% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 50.8% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5.6 Sol (low) 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.
GPT-5.6 Sol (low)Qwen3 Coder NextToday's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-6-sol-low/qwen3-coder-next · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-6-sol-low/qwen3-coder-next?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill