Kimi K3 (Low) vs Qwen3 Coder Next
Which is better for the money: Kimi K3 (Low) by Kimi or Qwen3 Coder Next by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Kimi K3 (Low) scores 20.9 points higher (30.1 vs 9.2) but costs 2.9× as much to run the benchmark ($1190 vs $405; premium vs mid-range cost classes). Pick Kimi K3 (Low) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Qwen3 Coder Next.
| Metric | Kimi K3 (Low) | Qwen3 Coder Next | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 30.1 | 9.2 | −69.4% Qwen3 Coder Next is 69.4% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,190.42 | $405.10 | −66.0% Qwen3 Coder Next is 66.0% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 62.29s | 6.22s | −90.0% Qwen3 Coder Next is 90.0% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $3.00 / $15.0 | $0.31 / $1.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Qwen3 Coder Next vs Kimi K3 (Low): 69.4% less intelligence, 66.0% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 90.0% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Kimi K3 (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- Qwen3 Coder Next is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
Kimi K3 (Low)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/kimi-k3-low/qwen3-coder-next · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/kimi-k3-low/qwen3-coder-next?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill