OpenAI o3 vs Qwen 3 Coder
Performance benchmarks + pricing comparison — updated April 2026
OpenAI o3
OpenAINext generation reasoning model. Improved coding and math over o1.
| Input | $10.00/M |
| Output | $40.00/M |
| Context | 200K tokens |
| Best For | Advanced coding, complex problem-solving |
| Benchmark | 85/100 |
Qwen 3 Coder
QwenLatest Qwen coding-specialized model. Strong performance on HumanEval and competitive programming benchmarks.
| Input | $0.500/M |
| Output | $2.00/M |
| Context | 256K tokens |
| Best For | Code generation, competitive programming, Chinese/English bilingual coding |
Cost Comparison by Scenario
Estimated cost per project with 30% cache hit rate. Actual costs may vary based on usage patterns.
| Scenario | OpenAI o3 | Qwen 3 Coder | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small Script (1K lines) | $1.55 | $0.08 | Qwen 3 Coder saves $1.47 (95%) |
| Medium Feature (10K lines) | $11.50 | $0.57 | Qwen 3 Coder saves $10.93 (95%) |
| Large Project (50K lines) | $57.50 | $2.88 | Qwen 3 Coder saves $54.63 (95%) |
| Code Review (5K lines) | $2.75 | $0.14 | Qwen 3 Coder saves $2.61 (95%) |
Verdict
Qwen 3 Coder wins on both price and performance — $0.500/M input with a benchmark score of N/A/100.
For most developers, this is the clear choice between these two models.
Compare with Other Models
Claude Sonnet 4
AnthropicAnthropic's balanced model for coding and general tasks. Best price-performance ratio in the Claude family.
Claude Opus 4
AnthropicAnthropic's most powerful model. Best for complex reasoning and challenging coding tasks.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
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Claude 3.5 Haiku
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Claude 3 Opus
AnthropicFirst generation Opus. Highest reasoning capability in the Claude 3 family.
Claude 3 Sonnet
AnthropicFirst generation Sonnet. Balanced performance for general tasks.