Model Comparison

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 vs Qwen3 VL 32B InstructWhich is better in 2026?

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

Verdict: LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 vs Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct — which is better?

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 (by Meituan) and Qwen3 VL 32B 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.

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 outperforms in 2 benchmarks (AIME 2025, GPQA), while Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct is better at 0 benchmarks. LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 2 of 2 shared benchmarks
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jan 2026

Choose Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct if…

  • you are already invested in the Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team ecosystem
Want to compare interactively?Try the playground

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

2 benchmarks

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 outperforms in 2 benchmarks (AIME 2025, GPQA), while Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct is better at 0 benchmarks.

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

Mon Jun 15 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

527.0B diff

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 has 527.0B more parameters than Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct, making it 1597.0% larger.

Meituan
LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601
560.0Bparameters
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct
33.0Bparameters
560.0B
LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601
33.0B
Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 specifies input context (128,000 tokens). Only LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 specifies output context (128,000 tokens).

Meituan
LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601
Input128,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Mon Jun 15 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct supports multimodal inputs, whereas LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 does not.

Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct 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 32B Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 is licensed under MIT, while Qwen3 VL 32B 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 VL 32B 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 VL 32B Instruct was released on 2025-09-22.

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 is 4 months newer than Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct.

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601

Jan 14, 2026

5 months ago

3mo newer
Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct

Sep 22, 2025

8 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

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

Meituan
Larger context window (128,000 tokens)
Higher AIME 2025 score (99.6% vs 66.2%)
Higher GPQA score (80.5% vs 68.9%)
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct

View details

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Supports multimodal inputs

Detailed Comparison

AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Meituan
LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct

FAQ

Common questions about LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 vs Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct.

Which is better, LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 or Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct?

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 is made by Meituan and Qwen3 VL 32B 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 LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 compare to Qwen3 VL 32B 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 VL 32B Instruct scores DocVQAtest: 96.9%, ScreenSpot: 95.8%, CharXiv-D: 90.5%, MMLU-Redux: 89.8%, AI2D: 89.5%.

What are the context window sizes for LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 and Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct?

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 supports 128K tokens and Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct supports an unknown number of 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 32B Instruct?

Key differences include 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 32B Instruct?

LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 is developed by Meituan and Qwen3 VL 32B Instruct is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.

Related comparisons