# Llama 3.1-8B vs Qwen3 Coder Next

> Qwen3 Coder Next is the stronger model overall, scoring 34.3 to 23.0 on the Noometry Index. Llama 3.1-8B costs 5.0× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3 Coder Next's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/llama-3-1-8b-vs-qwen3-coder-next
- Last updated: 2026-10-11
- Shared benchmarks: 3

## Summary

- They share 3 benchmarks with published results for both. Llama 3.1-8B scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3 Coder Next in 2 categories; 2 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in coding, where Qwen3 Coder Next leads 36.3 to 20.2.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is WeirdML: 1.7% for Llama 3.1-8B and 34.4% for Qwen3 Coder Next.
- Llama 3.1-8B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $0.12 / $0.80 for Qwen3 Coder Next.
- Qwen3 Coder Next accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 128K.

## Snapshot

| | Llama 3.1-8B | Qwen3 Coder Next |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Meta | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 23.0 | 34.3 |
| Rank | 352 | 232 |
| Context | 128K | 262K |
| Input $/M | $0.05 | $0.12 |
| Output $/M | $0.08 | $0.80 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Llama 3.1-8B: 20.2 (#340)
- Qwen3 Coder Next: 36.3 (#210)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Qwen3 Coder Next |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 13.2% | 32.3% |
| WeirdML | 1.7% | 34.4% |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 32.8% | — |
| LMArena Coding | 1195 | — |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 40.5% | — |
| HumanEval+ | 62.8% | — |
| MBPP+ | 55.6% | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Llama 3.1-8B: 22.5 (#131)
- Qwen3 Coder Next: —

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Qwen3 Coder Next |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 25.8% | — |
| BALROG | 15.1% | — |

## Reasoning

- Llama 3.1-8B: 14.9 (#321)
- Qwen3 Coder Next: 22.4 (#196)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Qwen3 Coder Next |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 0% | 0% |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1175 | — |
| DTBench | 50.9% | — |
| LMCA | 5.4% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 116.57 | — |
| PIQA | 81.2% | — |

## Math

- Llama 3.1-8B: 10.2 (#317)
- Qwen3 Coder Next: —

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Qwen3 Coder Next |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 1.7% | — |
| Omni-MATH | 13.7% | — |
| LMArena Math | 1179 | — |
| MATH Level 5 | 22.9% | — |
| GSM8K | 82.4% | — |

## Knowledge

- Llama 3.1-8B: 8.0 (#307)
- Qwen3 Coder Next: —

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Qwen3 Coder Next |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 27% | — |
| MMLU-Pro | 40.6% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 24.7% | — |
| LMArena Expert | 1144 | — |
| BoolQ | 82.8% | — |
| MMLU | 56.1% | — |

## Multilingual

- Llama 3.1-8B: 34.0 (#249)
- Qwen3 Coder Next: —

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Qwen3 Coder Next |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1148 | — |
| LMArena Chinese | 1151 | — |
| LMArena French | 1177 | — |
| LMArena German | 1144 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1061 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1053 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1158 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1169 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Llama 3.1-8B: 58.9 (#258)
- Qwen3 Coder Next: —

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Qwen3 Coder Next |
|---|---|---|
| IFEval | 74.3% | — |
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1159 | — |

## Long Context

- Llama 3.1-8B: 35.8 (#238)
- Qwen3 Coder Next: —

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Qwen3 Coder Next |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1182 | — |

## Writing & Preference

- Llama 3.1-8B: 29.7 (#290)
- Qwen3 Coder Next: —

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Qwen3 Coder Next |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1187 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1154 | — |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 713 | — |
| WildBench | 68.7% | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1172 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Llama 3.1-8B better than Qwen3 Coder Next?

Qwen3 Coder Next is the stronger model overall, scoring 34.3 to 23.0 on the Noometry Index. Llama 3.1-8B costs 5.0× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3 Coder Next's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Llama 3.1-8B or Qwen3 Coder Next?

Llama 3.1-8B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens; Qwen3 Coder Next lists at $0.12 and $0.80.

### Is Llama 3.1-8B or Qwen3 Coder Next better for coding?

Qwen3 Coder Next scores higher on coding benchmarks: 36.3 versus 20.2 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3 Coder Next does, with 262K tokens against 128K.

### How many benchmarks do Llama 3.1-8B and Qwen3 Coder Next share?

3 benchmarks have published results for both models. Llama 3.1-8B has 43 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 Coder Next has 3.