Qwen3 Coder Next vs Solar Mini 4
Which is better for the money: Qwen3 Coder Next by Alibaba or Solar Mini 4 by Upstage? 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
Solar Mini 4 scores 14.9 points higher (24.1 vs 9.2) but costs 1.2× as much to run the benchmark ($502 vs $405; premium vs mid-range cost classes). Pick Solar Mini 4 when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Qwen3 Coder Next.
| Metric | Qwen3 Coder Next | Solar Mini 4 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 9.2 | 24.1 | +162.0% Solar Mini 4 is 2.6× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $405.10 | $502.02 | +23.9% Solar Mini 4 is 23.9% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 6.22s | 27.46s | +341.5% Solar Mini 4 is 341.5% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.31 / $1.00 | $0.10 / $0.40 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text |
Solar Mini 4 vs Qwen3 Coder Next: 162.0% more intelligence, 23.9% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 341.5% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Qwen3 Coder Next is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
- Solar Mini 4 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
Qwen3 Coder NextSolar Mini 4Today'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-coder-next/solar-mini4 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/qwen3-coder-next/solar-mini4?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill