We present an improved calculation of the strong coupling constants and in light-cone sum rules, including one-loop QCD corrections of leading power with meson distribution amplitudes. We further compute subleading-power corrections from two-particle and three-particle higher-twist contributions at leading order up to twist-4 accuracy. The next-to-leading order corrections to the leading power contribution numerically offset the subleading-power corrections to a certain extent, and our numerical results are consistent with those of previous studies on sum rules. A comparison between our results and existing model-dependent estimations is also made.