Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B vs Qwen3-Coder Next
Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B and Qwen3-Coder Next both score 10 on the intelligence index. The cheapest machine here that runs Qwen3-Coder Next is the Framework Desktop, 128GB, at $3,449. Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B runs on the Framework Desktop, 32GB at $1,269, $2,180 less. On the Framework Desktop, 128GB, the cheapest machine here that runs both, Qwen3-Coder Next is about 2.2× quicker: 54 tok/s against 25, Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B's measured and the other estimated from memory bandwidth. At 500k tokens a day the Framework Desktop, 128GB pays for itself in 122 years running Qwen3-Coder Next, against 279 years running Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B.
| Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B | Qwen3-Coder Next | |
|---|---|---|
| Intelligence index | 10 | 10 |
| Class | Below every hosted tier | Below every hosted tier |
| Weights | 19 GB | 48 GB |
| Needs at 32k | 22 GB | 49 GB |
| Quantisation | Q4_K_M | Q4_K_M |
| Parameters | 30.5B (3.3B active) | 79.7B (3B active) |
| Max context | 256k | 256k |
| API price per 1M | $0.07 in / $0.28 out | $0.12 in / $0.8 out |
| Licence | Apache 2.0 | Apache 2.0 |
| Machines here that run it | 28 of 37 | 13 of 37 |
| Cheapest machine that runs it | Strix Halo Framework Desktop, 32GB $1,269 | Strix Halo Framework Desktop, 128GB $3,449 |
Run Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B on the Framework Desktop, 32GB · or Qwen3-Coder Next on the Framework Desktop, 128GB
Jump to: Side by side on the Framework Desktop, 128GB · How much use it takes to pay for the machine · Machines that run one and not the other · The assumptions behind both columns
Side by side on the Framework Desktop, 128GB
The table above gives each model the cheapest machine that runs it, and those are two different machines, so nothing in it is a like-for-like race. The Strix Halo Framework Desktop, 128GB is the cheapest machine here that runs both, so this is the pair doing the same work on the same hardware.
| Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B | Qwen3-Coder Next | |
|---|---|---|
| Speed at 32k | 25 tok/s measured | 54 tok/s estimated |
| Pay-back on this machine | Pays back in 279 years | Pays back in 122 years |
| API cost per month | $1.27 | $2.47 |
Run Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B on the Framework Desktop, 128GB · or Qwen3-Coder Next
How much use it takes to pay for the machine
Everything above is at 500k tokens a day. Pay-back moves with how much you actually run, so here are both models at the five levels of use the calculator names, on the Framework Desktop, 128GB. Qwen3-Coder Next pays for it sooner at every level of use, so which of them to run does not turn on how hard you work it.
| A day's use | Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B | Qwen3-Coder Next |
|---|---|---|
| 50ka few chats a day | 2,790 years | 1,217 years |
| 200klight assistant use | 697 years | 304 years |
| 1Ma moderate coding-assistant day | 139 years | 61 years |
| 4Mheavy coding with an agent | 35 years | 15 years |
| 20Magents running most of the day | 7.0 years | 3.0 years |
Run Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B at 20M tokens a day · or Qwen3-Coder Next
Machines that run one and not the other
Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B needs 22 GB of memory at 32k of context and Qwen3-Coder Next needs 49 GB. That puts Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B on 15 of the 37 machines priced here that Qwen3-Coder Next does not, starting at $1,269.
| Machine | Price | Memory | Speed on Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B | Pay-back |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strix Halo Framework Desktop, 32GB | $1,269 | 32 GB | 27 tok/s estimated | Pays back in 101 years |
| AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700, 32GB | $1,299card only | 32 GB | 64 tok/s estimated | Pays back in 103 years |
| Strix Halo Corsair AI Workstation 300, 64GB | $1,700 | 64 GB | 27 tok/s estimated | Pays back in 136 years |
| Strix Halo Framework Desktop, 64GB | $1,959 | 64 GB | 25 tok/s measured | Pays back in 158 years |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090, 32GB | $1,999card only | 32 GB | 113 tok/s estimated | Pays back in 161 years |
| Strix Halo GMKtec EVO-X2, 64GB | $2,200 | 64 GB | 33 tok/s measured | Pays back in 173 years |
9 more, on the Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B page.
Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B is also head to head with Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507, the last-generation Qwen nearest it in size. One more model needs much the same memory: Nemotron 3.5 Bolt 74B-A9B. Qwen3-Coder Next is also head to head with gpt-oss-20b below it on the leaderboard. One more model needs much the same memory: DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Llama-70B.
The assumptions behind both columns
Both columns use the same usage: 500k tokens a day at 15:1 input to output, 32k of context, $0.17 per kWh, and today's API prices held flat. Speeds marked estimated are worked out from memory bandwidth rather than measured, and pay-back scales with them. Where nobody rents an open model by the token, its API prices are the nearest hosted model's, named beside them. Machines are the 37 here with a published price that are still sold. Change any of it in the calculator.
More head to head: every machine that runs Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B · every machine that runs Qwen3-Coder Next · every other match-up · both against the frontier · the quickest pay-back at each level of use