OpenAI o3 vs Qwen3-Coder-Next
Benchmarks, API pricing and specs, head to head. Data updated 2026-06-10.
OpenAI · Apr 2025
OpenAI's dedicated 2025 reasoning model that pioneered thinking-with-images and agentic tool use within chain-of-thought.
Alibaba (Qwen) · Feb 2026
The 2026 open coding specialist: 70.6% SWE-bench Verified under Apache 2.0 from $0.11 per million input tokens.
The verdict
Qwen3-Coder-Next wins 1 of the 1 benchmarks these models share, against 0 for OpenAI o3. On price the gap is dramatic: Qwen3-Coder-Next works out roughly 12x cheaper per blended million tokens. Qwen3-Coder-Next also takes 262K of context versus 200K for OpenAI o3. And Qwen3-Coder-Next is open-weights (Apache 2.0), so it can be self-hosted — a structural advantage if data control or vendor independence matters.
Benchmark head-to-head 0–1
Specs & pricing
| OpenAI o3 | Qwen3-Coder-Next | |
|---|---|---|
| modhub Index | 68.9 | — |
| Input price / 1M | $2 | $0.11 |
| Output price / 1M | $8 | $0.8 |
| Context window | 200K | 262K |
| Max output | 100K | 66K |
| Open weights | no | yes (Apache 2.0) |
| Reasoning model | yes | yes |
| Multimodal input | text, image | text |
| Knowledge cutoff | May 2024 | Nov 2025 |
| Released | Apr 2025 | Feb 2026 |
| Example monthly cost* | $32.00 | $2.30 |
* 10M input + 1.5M output tokens per month at list prices, no caching. Green = better value on that row.
Frequently asked questions
- Which is better, OpenAI o3 or Qwen3-Coder-Next?
- Qwen3-Coder-Next wins 1 of the 1 benchmarks these models share, against 0 for OpenAI o3. On price the gap is dramatic: Qwen3-Coder-Next works out roughly 12x cheaper per blended million tokens. Qwen3-Coder-Next also takes 262K of context versus 200K for OpenAI o3. And Qwen3-Coder-Next is open-weights (Apache 2.0), so it can be self-hosted — a structural advantage if data control or vendor independence matters.
- Which is cheaper, OpenAI o3 or Qwen3-Coder-Next?
- OpenAI o3 costs $2/$8 per million input/output tokens, while Qwen3-Coder-Next costs $0.11/$0.8. For a typical workload of 10M input and 1.5M output tokens per month, that's $32.00 versus $2.30.
- Which model is better for coding, OpenAI o3 or Qwen3-Coder-Next?
- On SWE-bench Verified — the standard agentic-coding benchmark — Qwen3-Coder-Next scores 70.6% versus 69.1% for OpenAI o3, making Qwen3-Coder-Next the stronger pick for coding agents.