Qwen3 Coder Next vs Step 5 Preview
Which is better for the money: Qwen3 Coder Next by Alibaba or Step 5 Preview by StepFun? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-09-30.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Step 5 Preview scores 34.5 points higher (43.7 vs 9.2) but costs 2.0× as much to run the benchmark ($929 vs $476; premium vs mid-range cost classes). Pick Step 5 Preview when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Qwen3 Coder Next.
| Metric | Qwen3 Coder Next | Step 5 Preview | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 9.2 | 43.7 | +375.0% Step 5 Preview is 4.8× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $476.23 | $929.00 | +95.1% Step 5 Preview is 95.1% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 5.68s | 32.31s | +468.8% Step 5 Preview is 468.8% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.35 / $1.20 | $1.00 / $2.70 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image |
Step 5 Preview vs Qwen3 Coder Next: 375.0% more intelligence, 95.1% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 468.8% 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.
- Step 5 Preview is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
Qwen3 Coder NextStep 5 PreviewToday'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/step-5 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/qwen3-coder-next/step-5?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill