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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B vs Qwen3 Coder Next vs Qwen3.6 27B

Qwen3.6 27B comes out ahead, 56 to 51 and 50 on our weighted score, though Qwen3 Coder Next is 3× cheaper per token.

  1. NVIDIA

    Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B

    Released Jun 4, 2026

    50/100
    • ECI146.2
    • Price$0.50 / $2.50
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B

  2. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 Coder Next

    Released Feb 3, 2026

    51/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.20 / $1.20
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 Coder Next
  3. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.6 27B

    Released Apr 22, 2026

    56/100
    • ECI146.5
    • Price$0.60 / $3.60
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.6 27B
01 — Verdict

Qwen3.6 27B is our pick

Qwen3.6 27B is the better all-round choice, scoring 56/100 against Qwen3 Coder Next (51) and Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B (50). It leads on inputs & features. Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B wins on context window. Qwen3 Coder Next wins on price. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.

  • CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
  • Lowest priceQwen3 Coder NextQwen3 Coder Next $0.45 · Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B $1.00 · Qwen3.6 27B $1.35 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextNemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55BNemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B 1,000,000 · Qwen3 Coder Next 262,144 · Qwen3.6 27B 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.6 27BNemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B: Text · Qwen3 Coder Next: Text · Qwen3.6 27B: Text, Images, Audio, Video
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightNemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55BQwen3 Coder NextQwen3.6 27B
Price50%506644
Inputs & features30%453590
Context window20%603737
Overall100%50/10051/10056/100

Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.

02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B vs Qwen3 Coder Next vs Qwen3.6 27B specifications side by side
SpecificationNemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55BNVIDIAQwen3 Coder NextAlibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.6 27BAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)146.2—146.5 (best)
ECI rank#70 of 148—#68 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions85.4%—85.9% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics——35.1%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics86.7%—91.1% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$0.50$0.20 (best)$0.60
Output$2.50$1.20 (best)$3.60
Cached input$0.15——
Blended (3:1)$1.00$0.45 (best)$1.35
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Nvidia APIMedian of 11 providersOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens (best)262,144 tokens262,144 tokens
Max output128,000 tokens (best)65,536 tokens65,536 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoNoYes
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoYes
VideoNoNoYes
ReasoningYesNoYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesYesYes
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenOpen
API model IDnvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b—qwen3.6-27b
API providers211127 (best)
ReleasedJun 4, 2026Feb 3, 2026Apr 22, 2026
Knowledge cutoff—Sep 2025—
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B$10.00
  • Qwen3 Coder Next$4.40
  • Qwen3.6 27B$13.20
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B, Qwen3 Coder Next or Qwen3.6 27B?

Qwen3.6 27B is the better all-round choice, scoring 56/100 against Qwen3 Coder Next (51) and Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B (50). It leads on inputs & features. Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B wins on context window. Qwen3 Coder Next wins on price. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.

Which is cheaper, Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B, Qwen3 Coder Next or Qwen3.6 27B?

Qwen3 Coder Next is cheaper at $0.20 input / $1.20 output per million tokens (median across 11 API providers). Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B costs $0.50 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (official Nvidia API price); Qwen3.6 27B costs $0.60 input / $3.60 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.45 per million tokens for Qwen3 Coder Next versus $1.00 for Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B (2.2× as much) and $1.35 for Qwen3.6 27B (3× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B has an ECI of 146.2, Qwen3 Coder Next has not been scored yet and Qwen3.6 27B has an ECI of 146.5.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B, Qwen3 Coder Next and Qwen3.6 27B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3 Coder Next and 262,144 for Qwen3.6 27B. Maximum output per response: Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B up to 128,000, Qwen3 Coder Next up to 65,536, Qwen3.6 27B up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B accepts text; Qwen3 Coder Next accepts text; Qwen3.6 27B accepts text, images, audio and video. Qwen3.6 27B handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Yes, all three publish their weights, so you can self-host them.

Which is newer?

Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B is the newest, released Jun 4, 2026. Qwen3.6 27B came out Apr 22, 2026; Qwen3 Coder Next came out Feb 3, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3 Coder Next Sep 2025.

How do you decide the winner?

Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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