LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 vs Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 leads the LLM Stats Score 35.4 to 21.0. Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct is 1.1x cheaper per token.

Meituan · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 leads the overall LLM Stats Score 35.4 to 21.0, ranking #99 overall.

In the 1 individual benchmarks reported for both models, LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 wins 1; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.

On price, Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct is roughly 1.1x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct also accepts a larger context window (262,144 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.

Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601

overall performance matters — it scores 35.4 and ranks #99 on LLM Stats
your work emphasizes reasoning — it leads those capability indexes
you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 1 of 1 exact shared results
you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jan 2026

Choose Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct

cost matters — it's about 1.1x cheaper per token
you process long inputs — it offers a 262,144 token context window

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Better token value: Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601

Meituan

Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Core performance indexes

LLM Stats Score

35.4

#99 · 11 evals

Best

21.0

#205 · 9 evals

Reasoning

35.5

#91 · 11 evals

Best

21.1

#198 · 8 evals

Coding

18.7

#121 · 2 evals

Best

12.1

#164 · 5 evals

Agents

9.6

#136 · 1 evals

Best

5.2

#161 · 3 evals

Cost, coverage & limits

Benchmark wins

1 of 1

Best

0 of 1

Input price

$0.30 / M

Output price

$1.20 / M

$1.00 / M

Best

Context window

128,000

262,144

Best

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

2 shared

Index

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601

Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct

Tool use

24.3#38 · 3 evals

12.5#114 · 4 evals

Writing

30.3#2 · 3 evals

17.6#33 · 2 evals

Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

11 reported for LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 · 10 for Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct

1 shared

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 outperforms in 1 benchmarks (SWE-Bench Verified), while Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct is better at 0 benchmarks.

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sat Oct 10 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct costs less

For input processing, LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 ($0.30/1M tokens) costs the same as Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct ($0.30/1M tokens).

For output processing, LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 ($1.20/1M tokens) is 1.2x more expensive than Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct ($1.00/1M tokens).

In conclusion, LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 is more expensive than Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct.*

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

Lowest available price from all providers

Sat Oct 10 2026 • llm-stats.com

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601

Input tokens$0.30

Output tokens$1.20

Best providerMeituan

Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct

Input tokens$0.30

Output tokens$1.00

Best providerDeepinfra

Notice missing or incorrect data?

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

80.0B diff

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 has 80.0B more parameters than Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct, making it 16.7% larger.

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601

560.0Bparameters

Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct

480.0Bparameters

560.0B

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601

480.0B

Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct accepts 262,144 input tokens compared to LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601's 128,000 tokens. Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct can generate longer responses up to 262,144 tokens, while LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 is limited to 128,000 tokens.

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601

Input128,000 tokens

Output128,000 tokens

Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct

Input262,144 tokens

Output262,144 tokens

Sat Oct 10 2026 • llm-stats.com

License

Usage and distribution terms

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 is licensed under MIT, while Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct uses Apache 2.0.

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

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601

MIT

Open weights

Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 was released on 2026-01-14, while Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct was released on 2025-01-31.

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 is 12 months newer than Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct.

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601

Jan 14, 2026

8 months ago

11mo newer

Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct

Jan 31, 2025

1.7 years 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-Thinking-2601 is available from Meituan. Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct is available from DeepInfra.

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601

Meituan

Input Price:Input: $0.30/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.20/1M

Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct

Deepinfra

Input Price:Input: $0.30/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.00/1M

* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 and Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601

✓ Preferred

Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct

Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 vs Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct.

Which is better, LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 or Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct?

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 leads the LLM Stats Score 35.4 to 21.0. LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 is made by Meituan and Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 compare to Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct in benchmarks?

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 scores AIME 2025: 99.6%, Tau2 Telecom: 99.3%, Tau2 Retail: 88.6%, LiveCodeBench: 82.8%, GPQA: 80.5%. Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct scores TAU-bench Retail: 77.5%, SWE-Bench Verified: 69.6%, BFCL-v3: 68.7%, Aider-Polyglot: 61.8%, TAU-bench Airline: 60.0%.

Is LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 cheaper than Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct?

Both models cost $0.30 per million input tokens.

What are the context window sizes for LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 and Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct?

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 supports 128K tokens and Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct supports 262K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 and Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (35.4 vs 21.0), context window (128K vs 262K), licensing (MIT vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 and Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct?

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 is developed by Meituan and Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 vs Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct