Qwen3.8 Max vs Qwen3 Coder Next
Which is better for the money: Qwen3.8 Max by Alibaba 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
Qwen3.8 Max scores 31.0 points higher (40.2 vs 9.2) but costs 7.8× as much to run the benchmark ($3172 vs $405; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.8 Max when you need intelligence above 9.2, and Qwen3 Coder Next when 9.2 is enough.
| Metric | Qwen3.8 Max | Qwen3 Coder Next | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 40.2 | 9.2 | −77.1% Qwen3 Coder Next is 77.1% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $3,172.37 | $405.10 | −87.2% Qwen3 Coder Next is 87.2% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 64.18s | 6.22s | −90.3% Qwen3 Coder Next is 90.3% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $6.00 | $0.31 / $1.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Video | Text |
Qwen3 Coder Next vs Qwen3.8 Max: 77.1% less intelligence, 87.2% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 90.3% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Qwen3.8 Max is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 55.10 for $3117.
- Qwen3 Coder Next is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
Qwen3.8 MaxQwen3 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/qwen3-8-max-0803/qwen3-coder-next · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/qwen3-8-max-0803/qwen3-coder-next?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill