Model Comparison

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 vs Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct is 1.1x cheaper per token.

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Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

5 benchmarks

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 outperforms in 5 benchmarks (AIME 2025, GPQA, Tau2 Airline, Tau2 Retail, Tau2 Telecom), while Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct is better at 0 benchmarks.

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

Wed Apr 15 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, LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 ($0.30/1M tokens) is 2.0x more expensive than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct ($0.15/1M tokens).

For output processing, LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 ($1.20/1M tokens) is 1.3x cheaper than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct ($1.50/1M tokens).

In conclusion, LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 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
Wed Apr 15 2026 • llm-stats.com
Meituan
LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601
Input tokens$0.30
Output tokens$1.20
Best providerMeituan
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→

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

480.0B diff

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 has 480.0B more parameters than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct, making it 600.0% larger.

Meituan
LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601
560.0Bparameters
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct
80.0Bparameters
560.0B
LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601
80.0B
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 accepts 128,000 input tokens compared to Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct's 65,536 tokens. LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 can generate longer responses up to 128,000 tokens, while Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct is limited to 65,536 tokens.

Meituan
LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601
Input128,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct
Input65,536 tokens
Output65,536 tokens
Wed Apr 15 2026 • llm-stats.com

License

Usage and distribution terms

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 is licensed under MIT, 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.

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601

MIT

Open weights

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-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-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct was released on 2025-09-10.

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 is 4 months newer than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct.

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601

Jan 14, 2026

3 months ago

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

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-Thinking-2601 is available from Meituan. Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct is available from Novita.

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601

meituan logo
Meituan
Input Price:Input: $0.30/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.20/1M

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

Meituan
Larger context window (128,000 tokens)
Less expensive output tokens
Higher AIME 2025 score (99.6% vs 69.5%)
Higher GPQA score (80.5% vs 72.9%)
Higher Tau2 Airline score (76.5% vs 45.5%)
Higher Tau2 Retail score (88.6% vs 57.3%)
Higher Tau2 Telecom score (99.3% vs 13.2%)
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Less expensive input tokens

Detailed Comparison

AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Meituan
LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct

FAQ

Common questions about LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 vs Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 is made by Meituan 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.
LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 scores AIME 2025: 99.6%, Tau2 Telecom: 99.3%, Tau2 Retail: 88.6%, LiveCodeBench: 82.8%, GPQA: 80.5%. 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%.
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct is 2.0x cheaper for input tokens. LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 costs $0.30/M input and $1.20/M output via meituan. Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct costs $0.15/M input and $1.50/M output via novita.
LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 supports 128K 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.
Key differences include context window (128K vs 66K), input pricing ($0.30 vs $0.15/M), licensing (MIT vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.
LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 is developed by Meituan and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.