Grok 4.5 (high) vs Qwen3 Coder Next
Which is better for the money: Grok 4.5 (high) by SpaceXAI 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
Grok 4.5 (high) scores 29.0 points higher (39.1 vs 10.1) but costs 2.9× as much to run the benchmark ($1404 vs $476; premium vs mid-range cost classes). Pick Grok 4.5 (high) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Qwen3 Coder Next.
| Metric | Grok 4.5 (high) | Qwen3 Coder Next | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 39.1 | 10.1 | −74.2% Qwen3 Coder Next is 74.2% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,403.78 | $476.03 | −66.1% Qwen3 Coder Next is 66.1% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 18.47s | 5.52s | −70.1% Qwen3 Coder Next is 70.1% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $6.00 | $0.35 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Not reported | Not reported |
Qwen3 Coder Next vs Grok 4.5 (high): 74.2% less intelligence, 66.1% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 70.1% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Grok 4.5 (high) 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.
Grok 4.5 (high)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/grok-4-5/qwen3-coder-next · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/grok-4-5/qwen3-coder-next?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill