GPT-5.6 Sol (medium) vs Qwen3 Coder Next
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.6 Sol (medium) by OpenAI or Qwen3 Coder Next by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-09-09.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GPT-5.6 Sol (medium) scores 29.4 points higher (39.5 vs 10.1) but costs 2.1× as much to run the benchmark ($997 vs $476; premium vs mid-range cost classes). Pick GPT-5.6 Sol (medium) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Qwen3 Coder Next.
| Metric | GPT-5.6 Sol (medium) | Qwen3 Coder Next | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 39.5 | 10.1 | −74.4% Qwen3 Coder Next is 74.4% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $997.39 | $476.03 | −52.3% Qwen3 Coder Next is 52.3% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 12.77s | 5.52s | −56.8% Qwen3 Coder Next is 56.8% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $0.35 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Not reported | Not reported |
Qwen3 Coder Next vs GPT-5.6 Sol (medium): 74.4% less intelligence, 52.3% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 56.8% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5.6 Sol (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.
GPT-5.6 Sol (medium)Qwen3 Coder NextToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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