Kimi K2.6 vs Qwen3 Coder Next
Which is better for the money: Kimi K2.6 by Kimi or Qwen3 Coder Next by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-07-18.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Kimi K2.6 scores 23.1 points higher (44.2 vs 21.1) but costs 3.4× as much to run the benchmark ($841 vs $247; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Kimi K2.6 when you need intelligence above 21.1, and Qwen3 Coder Next when 21.1 is enough.
| Metric | Kimi K2.6 | Qwen3 Coder Next | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 44.2 | 21.1 | −52.3% Qwen3 Coder Next is 52.3% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $840.64 | $247.26 | −70.6% Qwen3 Coder Next is 70.6% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 109.67s | 6.89s | −93.7% Qwen3 Coder Next is 93.7% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.95 / $4.00 | $0.35 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Not reported | Not reported |
Qwen3 Coder Next vs Kimi K2.6: 52.3% less intelligence, 70.6% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 93.7% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Kimi K2.6 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Grok 4.5 (high) scores 53.80 for $602.
- Qwen3 Coder Next is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-5.6 Terra (medium) scores 45.60 for $240.
Kimi K2.6Qwen3 Coder NextToday's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/kimi-k2-6/qwen3-coder-next · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/kimi-k2-6/qwen3-coder-next?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill