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LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 leads the LLM Stats Score 35.3 to 26.7. LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 is 2.3x cheaper per token.

Meituan · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 leads the overall LLM Stats Score 35.3 to 26.7, ranking #89 overall.

In the 2 individual benchmarks reported for both models, LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 wins 2; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.

On price, LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 is roughly 2.3x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking 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 35.3 and ranks #89 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning — it leads those capability indexes
  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 2 of 2 exact shared results
  • cost matters — it's about 2.3x cheaper per token
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jan 2026

Choose Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking

  • you process long inputs — it offers a 262,144 token context window

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601
Meituan
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
35.3
#89
26.7
#151
Reasoning
35.5
#83
26.9
#145
Agents
9.6
#124
13.1
#97
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
2 of 2
0 of 2
Input price
$0.30 / M
$0.45 / M
Output price
$1.20 / M
$3.49 / M
Context window
128,000
262,144

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

2 shared
Index
LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking
Math
30.5#74
29.6#82
Writing
30.1#2
18.5#27
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

11 reported for LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 · 67 for Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking

2 shared

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 outperforms in 2 benchmarks (AIME 2025, Humanity's Last Exam), while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking is better at 0 benchmarks.

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

Tue Sep 22 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 costs less

For input processing, LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 ($0.30/1M tokens) is 1.5x cheaper than Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking ($0.45/1M tokens).

For output processing, LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 ($1.20/1M tokens) is 2.9x cheaper than Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking ($3.49/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking is more expensive than LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601.*

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

Lowest available price from all providers
Tue Sep 22 2026 • llm-stats.com
Meituan
LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601
Input tokens$0.30
Output tokens$1.20
Best providerMeituan
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking
Input tokens$0.45
Output tokens$3.49
Best providerDeepinfra
Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue→

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

324.0B diff

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 has 324.0B more parameters than Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking, making it 137.3% larger.

Meituan
LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601
560.0Bparameters
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking
236.0Bparameters
560.0B
LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601
236.0B
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking accepts 262,144 input tokens compared to LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601's 128,000 tokens. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking can generate longer responses up to 262,144 tokens, while LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 is limited to 128,000 tokens.

Meituan
LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601
Input128,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking
Input262,144 tokens
Output262,144 tokens
Tue Sep 22 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking supports multimodal inputs, whereas LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 does not.

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 is licensed under MIT, while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking 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 VL 235B A22B Thinking

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 was released on 2026-01-14, while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking was released on 2025-09-22.

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 is 4 months newer than Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking.

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601

Jan 14, 2026

8 months ago

3mo newer
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking

Sep 22, 2025

1.0 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 VL 235B A22B Thinking is available from DeepInfra, Novita.

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601

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

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking

deepinfra logo
Deepinfra
Input Price:Input: $0.45/1MOutput Price:Output: $3.49/1M
novita logo
Novita
Input Price:Input: $0.98/1MOutput Price:Output: $3.95/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601
✓ Preferred
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking.

Which is better, LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 or Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking?

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 leads the LLM Stats Score 35.3 to 26.7. LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 is made by Meituan and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking 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 VL 235B A22B Thinking 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 VL 235B A22B Thinking scores ZebraLogic: 97.3%, DocVQAtest: 96.5%, ScreenSpot: 95.4%, CountBench: 93.7%, MMLU-Redux: 93.7%.

Is LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 cheaper than Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking?

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 is 1.5x cheaper for input tokens. LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 costs $0.30/M input and $1.20/M output via meituan. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking costs $0.45/M input and $3.49/M output via deepinfra.

What are the context window sizes for LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking?

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 supports 128K tokens and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking 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 VL 235B A22B Thinking?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (35.3 vs 26.7), context window (128K vs 262K), input pricing ($0.30 vs $0.45/M), multimodal support (no vs yes), licensing (MIT vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking?

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 is developed by Meituan and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.

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