Grok 4.6 (high) vs Qwen3 Coder Next
Which is better for the money: Grok 4.6 (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 4.6 (high) scores 34.3 points higher (44.4 vs 10.1) but costs 4.9× as much to run the benchmark ($2352 vs $476; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Grok 4.6 (high) when you need intelligence above 10.1, and Qwen3 Coder Next when 10.1 is enough.
| Metric | Grok 4.6 (high) | Qwen3 Coder Next | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 44.4 | 10.1 | −77.3% Qwen3 Coder Next is 77.3% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,351.83 | $476.03 | −79.8% Qwen3 Coder Next is 79.8% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 46.71s | 5.52s | −88.2% Qwen3 Coder Next is 88.2% 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 4.6 (high): 77.3% less intelligence, 79.8% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 88.2% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Grok 4.6 (high) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Muse Spark 1.3 (max) scores 48.20 for $2000.
- Qwen3 Coder Next is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GLM-5.3-Flash scores 41.90 for $280.
Grok 4.6 (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-4-6/qwen3-coder-next · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/grok-4-6/qwen3-coder-next?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill