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 2026-08-17.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Qwen3.8 Max scores 36.8 points higher (58.1 vs 21.3) but costs 7.0× as much to run the benchmark ($1741 vs $250; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.8 Max when you need intelligence above 21.3, and Qwen3 Coder Next when 21.3 is enough.
| Metric | Qwen3.8 Max | Qwen3 Coder Next | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 58.1 | 21.3 | −63.3% Qwen3 Coder Next is 63.3% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,741.41 | $250.18 | −85.6% Qwen3 Coder Next is 85.6% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 55.99s | 4.63s | −91.7% Qwen3 Coder Next is 91.7% 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 Qwen3.8 Max: 63.3% less intelligence, 85.6% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 91.7% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Qwen3.8 Max is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Grok 4.6 (high) scores 60.90 for $1068.
- Qwen3 Coder Next is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-5.6 Luna (max) scores 52.30 for $172.
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/qwen3-coder-next · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/qwen3-8-max/qwen3-coder-next?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill