Model Comparison

Claude Opus 4.6 vs Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-InstructWhich is better in 2026?

Claude Opus 4.6 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct is 20.5x cheaper per token.

Verdict: Claude Opus 4.6 vs Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct — which is better?

Claude Opus 4.6 (by Anthropic) and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct (by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team) are two of the AI models people compare most. Here is how they stack up on benchmarks, price and capabilities, and which one to pick in 2026.

Claude Opus 4.6 outperforms in 4 benchmarks (AIME 2025, GPQA, Tau2 Retail, Tau2 Telecom), while Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct is better at 0 benchmarks. Claude Opus 4.6 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

On price, Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct is roughly 20.5x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

Claude Opus 4.6 also accepts a larger context window (1,000,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.

Choose Claude Opus 4.6 if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 4 of 4 shared benchmarks
  • you process long inputs — it offers a 1,000,000 token context window
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Feb 2026

Choose Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct if…

  • cost matters — it's about 20.5x cheaper per token
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
Want to compare interactively?Try the playground

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

4 benchmarks

Claude Opus 4.6 outperforms in 4 benchmarks (AIME 2025, GPQA, Tau2 Retail, Tau2 Telecom), while Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct is better at 0 benchmarks.

Claude Opus 4.6 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sun Jun 07 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct costs less

For input processing, Claude Opus 4.6 ($5.00/1M tokens) is 33.3x more expensive than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct ($0.15/1M tokens).

For output processing, Claude Opus 4.6 ($25.00/1M tokens) is 16.7x more expensive than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct ($1.50/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Claude Opus 4.6 is more expensive than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct.*

* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens

Lowest available price from all providers
Sun Jun 07 2026 • llm-stats.com
Anthropic
Claude Opus 4.6
Input tokens$5.00
Output tokens$25.00
Best providerAnthropic
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct
Input tokens$0.15
Output tokens$1.50
Best providerNovita
Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue→

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Claude Opus 4.6 accepts 1,000,000 input tokens compared to Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct's 65,536 tokens. Claude Opus 4.6 can generate longer responses up to 128,000 tokens, while Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct is limited to 65,536 tokens.

Anthropic
Claude Opus 4.6
Input1,000,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct
Input65,536 tokens
Output65,536 tokens
Sun Jun 07 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Claude Opus 4.6 supports multimodal inputs, whereas Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct does not.

Claude Opus 4.6 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Claude Opus 4.6

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Claude Opus 4.6 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct uses Apache 2.0.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

Claude Opus 4.6

Proprietary

Closed source

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Claude Opus 4.6 was released on 2026-02-05, while Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct was released on 2025-09-10.

Claude Opus 4.6 is 5 months newer than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct.

Claude Opus 4.6

Feb 5, 2026

4 months ago

4mo newer
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct

Sep 10, 2025

9 months ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Provider Availability

Claude Opus 4.6 is available from Anthropic. Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct is available from Novita.

Claude Opus 4.6

anthropic logo
Anthropic
Input Price:Input: $5.00/1MOutput Price:Output: $25.00/1M

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct

novita logo
Novita
Input Price:Input: $0.15/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.50/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

Anthropic
Larger context window (1,000,000 tokens)
Supports multimodal inputs
Higher AIME 2025 score (99.8% vs 69.5%)
Higher GPQA score (91.3% vs 72.9%)
Higher Tau2 Retail score (91.9% vs 57.3%)
Higher Tau2 Telecom score (99.3% vs 13.2%)
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Less expensive input tokens
Less expensive output tokens
Has open weights

Detailed Comparison

AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Anthropic
Claude Opus 4.6
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct

FAQ

Common questions about Claude Opus 4.6 vs Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct.

Which is better, Claude Opus 4.6 or Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct?

Claude Opus 4.6 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Claude Opus 4.6 is made by Anthropic and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does Claude Opus 4.6 compare to Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct in benchmarks?

Claude Opus 4.6 scores Vending-Bench 2: 100.0%, AIME 2025: 99.8%, Tau2 Telecom: 99.3%, Graphwalks parents >128k: 95.4%, MRCR v2 (8-needle): 93.0%. Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct scores MMLU-Redux: 90.9%, MultiPL-E: 87.8%, IFEval: 87.6%, WritingBench: 87.3%, Creative Writing v3: 85.3%.

Is Claude Opus 4.6 cheaper than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct?

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct is 33.3x cheaper for input tokens. Claude Opus 4.6 costs $5.00/M input and $25.00/M output via anthropic. Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct costs $0.15/M input and $1.50/M output via novita.

What are the context window sizes for Claude Opus 4.6 and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct?

Claude Opus 4.6 supports 1.0M tokens and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct supports 66K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Claude Opus 4.6 and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct?

Key differences include context window (1.0M vs 66K), input pricing ($5.00 vs $0.15/M), multimodal support (yes vs no), licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Claude Opus 4.6 and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct?

Claude Opus 4.6 is developed by Anthropic and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.

Related comparisons