GPT-5.6 Sol (Max) vs Qwen3 Coder Next
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.6 Sol (Max) by OpenAI or Qwen3 Coder Next by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GPT-5.6 Sol (Max) scores 37.8 points higher (47.0 vs 9.2) but costs 8.6× as much to run the benchmark ($3465 vs $405; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-5.6 Sol (Max) when you need intelligence above 9.2, and Qwen3 Coder Next when 9.2 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-5.6 Sol (Max) | Qwen3 Coder Next | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 47.0 | 9.2 | −80.4% Qwen3 Coder Next is 80.4% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $3,464.84 | $405.10 | −88.3% Qwen3 Coder Next is 88.3% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 91.96s | 6.44s | −93.0% Qwen3 Coder Next is 93.0% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $0.31 / $1.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Qwen3 Coder Next vs GPT-5.6 Sol (Max): 80.4% less intelligence, 88.3% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 93.0% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5.6 Sol (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 55.10 for $3117.
- Qwen3 Coder Next is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
GPT-5.6 Sol (Max)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-5-6-sol/qwen3-coder-next · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-6-sol/qwen3-coder-next?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill