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 2026-09-09.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GPT-5.6 Sol (max) scores 37.0 points higher (47.1 vs 10.1) but costs 7.3× as much to run the benchmark ($3465 vs $476; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-5.6 Sol (max) when you need intelligence above 10.1, and Qwen3 Coder Next when 10.1 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-5.6 Sol (max) | Qwen3 Coder Next | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 47.1 | 10.1 | −78.6% Qwen3 Coder Next is 78.6% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $3,464.84 | $476.03 | −86.3% Qwen3 Coder Next is 86.3% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 145.57s | 5.52s | −96.2% Qwen3 Coder Next is 96.2% 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 (max): 78.6% less intelligence, 86.3% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 96.2% 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, GPT-6 Astra (high) scores 51.00 for $2917.
- 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 (max)Qwen3 Coder NextToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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