Model Comparison

LongCat-Flash-Lite vs Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks. LongCat-Flash-Lite is 2.8x cheaper per token.

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Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

6 benchmarks

LongCat-Flash-Lite outperforms in 2 benchmarks (Tau2 Retail, Tau2 Telecom), while Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is better at 4 benchmarks (AIME 2025, GPQA, MMLU-Pro, Tau2 Airline).

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.

Wed Apr 15 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

LongCat-Flash-Lite costs less

For input processing, LongCat-Flash-Lite ($0.10/1M tokens) is 1.5x cheaper than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking ($0.15/1M tokens).

For output processing, LongCat-Flash-Lite ($0.40/1M tokens) is 3.8x cheaper than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking ($1.50/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is more expensive than LongCat-Flash-Lite.*

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

Lowest available price from all providers
Wed Apr 15 2026 • llm-stats.com
Meituan
LongCat-Flash-Lite
Input tokens$0.10
Output tokens$0.40
Best providerMeituan
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking
Input tokens$0.15
Output tokens$1.50
Best providerNovita
Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue→

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

11.5B diff

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking has 11.5B more parameters than LongCat-Flash-Lite, making it 16.8% larger.

Meituan
LongCat-Flash-Lite
68.5Bparameters
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking
80.0Bparameters
68.5B
LongCat-Flash-Lite
80.0B
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

LongCat-Flash-Lite accepts 256,000 input tokens compared to Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking's 65,536 tokens. LongCat-Flash-Lite can generate longer responses up to 128,000 tokens, while Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is limited to 65,536 tokens.

Meituan
LongCat-Flash-Lite
Input256,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking
Input65,536 tokens
Output65,536 tokens
Wed Apr 15 2026 • llm-stats.com

License

Usage and distribution terms

LongCat-Flash-Lite is licensed under MIT, while Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking uses Apache 2.0.

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

LongCat-Flash-Lite

MIT

Open weights

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

LongCat-Flash-Lite was released on 2026-02-05, while Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking was released on 2025-09-10.

LongCat-Flash-Lite is 5 months newer than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking.

LongCat-Flash-Lite

Feb 5, 2026

2 months ago

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

Sep 10, 2025

7 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

LongCat-Flash-Lite is available from Meituan. Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is available from Novita.

LongCat-Flash-Lite

meituan logo
Meituan
Input Price:Input: $0.10/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.40/1M

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking

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

Outputs Comparison

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Key Takeaways

Meituan
Larger context window (256,000 tokens)
Less expensive input tokens
Less expensive output tokens
Higher Tau2 Retail score (73.1% vs 67.8%)
Higher Tau2 Telecom score (72.8% vs 43.9%)
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Higher AIME 2025 score (87.8% vs 63.2%)
Higher GPQA score (77.2% vs 66.8%)
Higher MMLU-Pro score (82.7% vs 78.3%)
Higher Tau2 Airline score (60.5% vs 58.0%)

Detailed Comparison

AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Meituan
LongCat-Flash-Lite
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking

FAQ

Common questions about LongCat-Flash-Lite vs Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks. LongCat-Flash-Lite is made by Meituan and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.
LongCat-Flash-Lite scores MATH-500: 96.8%, MMLU: 85.5%, CMMLU: 82.5%, MMLU-Pro: 78.3%, Tau2 Retail: 73.1%. Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking scores MMLU-Redux: 92.5%, IFEval: 88.9%, AIME 2025: 87.8%, WritingBench: 84.6%, MMLU-Pro: 82.7%.
LongCat-Flash-Lite is 1.5x cheaper for input tokens. LongCat-Flash-Lite costs $0.10/M input and $0.40/M output via meituan. Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking costs $0.15/M input and $1.50/M output via novita.
LongCat-Flash-Lite supports 256K tokens and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking supports 66K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.
Key differences include context window (256K vs 66K), input pricing ($0.10 vs $0.15/M), licensing (MIT vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.
LongCat-Flash-Lite is developed by Meituan and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.