AI model comparison
Qwen3 Coder Next vs Sonar
Pricing, context window, benchmarks, and features compared side by side. Or skip the guesswork and send one prompt to both.
Qwen
Qwen3 Coder Next
Qwen3-Coder-Next is an open-weight causal language model optimized for coding agents and local development workflows.
- Input / 1M
- $0.12
- Output / 1M
- $0.80
- Context
- 262K
Perplexity
Sonar
Sonar is lightweight, affordable, fast, and simple to use — now featuring citations and the ability to customize sources.
- Input / 1M
- $1
- Output / 1M
- $1
- Context
- 127K
At a glance
Quick verdict
How the two models stack up on the things people ask about most.
Lower price
Qwen3 Coder Next
3.9x cheaper for a typical chat
Higher intelligence score
Qwen3 Coder Next
9.2 vs 7.7 on Artificial Analysis
Larger context window
Qwen3 Coder Next
262K vs 127K tokens
Newer release
Qwen3 Coder Next
Released February 4, 2026
Benchmarks
Benchmark scores
Independent scores from Artificial Analysis. Higher is better.
Intelligence index
Qwen3 Coder Next9.2Sonar7.7Coding index
Qwen3 Coder Next36.2SonarNot availableAgentic index
Qwen3 Coder Next0.9SonarNot availablePricing
Qwen3 Coder Next vs Sonar API pricing
Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.
| Metric | Qwen3 Coder Next | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| Input tokensPer 1M tokens | $0.12 | $1 |
| Output tokensPer 1M tokens | $0.80 | $1 |
| Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens | $0.07 | Not available |
| Cache writePer 1M tokens | Not available | Not available |
| Web searchPer request | Not available | $0.005 |
What it costs in practice
Estimated cost per 1,000 requests at standard rates. Coding and long-document figures also show the cost when the input is already cached.
Chat message
2K in, 500 out
Qwen3 Coder Next$0.64Sonar$2.50Coding task
30K in, 4K out
Qwen3 Coder Next$6.80$5.30 cachedSonar$34Long document summary
150K in, 2K out
Qwen3 Coder Next$19.60$12.10 cachedSonar$152Specs
Context window and capabilities
How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.
| Metric | Qwen3 Coder Next | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 262K tokens | 127K tokens |
| Max output | 236K tokens | 114K tokens |
| Input types | Text | Image, Text |
| Output types | Text | Text |
| Reasoning effort levels | Not available | Not available |
| Default reasoning effort | Not available | Not available |
| Release date | February 4, 2026 | January 27, 2025 |
Features
Supported features
API features available for each model.
| Metric | Qwen3 Coder Next | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| Tool calling | Supported | Not supported |
| Structured outputs | Supported | Not supported |
| JSON mode | Supported | Not supported |
| Reasoning | Not supported | Not supported |
| Temperature | Supported | Supported |
| Stop sequences | Supported | Not supported |
| Deterministic seed | Supported | Not supported |
| Verbosity control | Not supported | Not supported |
Keep exploring
More on these models
Other head-to-heads, the full model page, and the alternatives list for each model.
Qwen3 Coder NextView full model details- Qwen3 Coder Next vs Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite
- Qwen3 Coder Next vs Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507
- Qwen3 Coder Next vs Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct
- Qwen3 Coder Next vs DeepSeek V3 0324
- Qwen3 Coder Next vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
- Qwen3 Coder Next vs Llama 4 Maverick
- Qwen3 Coder Next vs Qwen3 32B
- Qwen3 Coder Next vs Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B
- Qwen3 Coder Next vs GLM 4.5 Air
- Qwen3 Coder Next vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct
- Qwen3 Coder Next vs Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct
- Qwen3 Coder Next vs Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking
- Qwen3 Coder Next vs Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct
- Qwen3 Coder Next vs Trinity Large Thinking
- Qwen3 Coder Next vs Qwen3 14B
- Qwen3 Coder Next vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking
- Qwen3 Coder Next vs Mistral Medium 3.1
- Qwen3 Coder Next vs Mistral Large 3 2512
- Qwen3 Coder Next vs Mistral Medium 3
- Qwen3 Coder Next vs Devstral 2 2512
- Qwen3 Coder Next vs Solar Pro 3
- Qwen3 Coder Next vs Qwen3 30B A3B
- Qwen3 Coder Next vs Hermes 3 405B Instruct
- Qwen3 Coder Next vs Hermes 3 70B Instruct
- Qwen3 Coder Next vs Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct
SonarView full model details- Sonar vs GPT-4o-mini
- Sonar vs GPT-4.1 Mini
- Sonar vs Llama 3.3 70B Instruct
- Sonar vs DeepSeek V3 0324
- Sonar vs Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct
- Sonar vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct
- Sonar vs GLM 4.5V
- Sonar vs Hermes 3 405B Instruct
- Sonar vs Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct
- Sonar vs Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct
- Sonar vs GPT-3.5 Turbo
Our take
Qwen3 Coder Next is 3.9x cheaper for a typical chat. Qwen3 Coder Next scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (9.2 vs 7.7). Qwen3 Coder Next has the larger context window (262K vs 127K tokens). The right pick depends on your workload, so the quickest way to settle it is to send the same prompt to both and compare.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is Qwen3 Coder Next or Sonar cheaper?
Qwen3 Coder Next is cheaper for a typical chat (2K input tokens and 500 output tokens). Qwen3 Coder Next costs $0.12 per 1M input tokens and $0.80 per 1M output tokens, while Sonar costs $1 per 1M input tokens and $1 per 1M output tokens.
Which has a bigger context window, Qwen3 Coder Next or Sonar?
Qwen3 Coder Next supports up to 262K tokens of context, compared with 127K for Sonar.
Is Qwen3 Coder Next smarter than Sonar?
On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Qwen3 Coder Next scores 9.2 and Sonar scores 7.7, putting Qwen3 Coder Next ahead. Benchmarks don't capture everything, so the best test is running your own prompts through both.
Can I use Qwen3 Coder Next and Sonar at the same time?
Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to multiple models at once, so you can see Qwen3 Coder Next and Sonar answer side by side and keep the better response.
Why choose? Ask both.
Send one prompt to Qwen3 Coder Next and Sonar at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.