Kimi K3 vs Qwen3 Coder Next
Which is better for the money: Kimi K3 by Kimi or Qwen3 Coder Next by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-07-17.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Kimi K3 scores 36.0 points higher (57.1 vs 21.1) but costs 11× as much to run the benchmark ($2691 vs $247; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Kimi K3 when you need intelligence above 21.1, and Qwen3 Coder Next when 21.1 is enough.
| Metric | Kimi K3 | Qwen3 Coder Next | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 57.1 | 21.1 | −63.0% Qwen3 Coder Next is 63.0% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,690.80 | $247.26 | −90.8% Qwen3 Coder Next is 90.8% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 42.30s | 6.61s | −84.4% Qwen3 Coder Next is 84.4% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $3.00 / $15.0 | $0.35 / $1.20 | |
| Input modalities | Not reported | Not reported |
Qwen3 Coder Next vs Kimi K3: 63.0% less intelligence, 90.8% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 84.4% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Kimi K3 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-5.6 Sol (xhigh) scores 57.70 for $1543.
- Qwen3 Coder Next is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-5.6 Terra (medium) scores 45.60 for $240.
Kimi K3Qwen3 Coder NextToday's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
Compare something else
Agents:
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/kimi-k3/qwen3-coder-next · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/kimi-k3/qwen3-coder-next?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill