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 2026-09-09.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Qwen3.8 Max scores 30.2 points higher (40.3 vs 10.1) but costs 6.7× as much to run the benchmark ($3172 vs $476; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.8 Max when you need intelligence above 10.1, and Qwen3 Coder Next when 10.1 is enough.
| Metric | Qwen3.8 Max | Qwen3 Coder Next | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 40.3 | 10.1 | −74.9% Qwen3 Coder Next is 74.9% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $3,172.37 | $476.03 | −85.0% Qwen3 Coder Next is 85.0% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 65.84s | 5.52s | −91.6% Qwen3 Coder Next is 91.6% 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: 74.9% less intelligence, 85.0% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 91.6% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Qwen3.8 Max is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Astra (high) scores 51.00 for $2917.
- Qwen3 Coder Next is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GLM-5.3-Flash scores 41.90 for $280.
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