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

LongCat-Flash-Thinking leads the LLM Stats Score 28.6 to 23.8. Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is 1.1x cheaper per token.

Meituan · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

LongCat-Flash-Thinking leads the overall LLM Stats Score 28.6 to 23.8, ranking #136 overall.

In the 8 individual benchmarks reported for both models, LongCat-Flash-Thinking wins 6; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.

On price, Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is roughly 1.1x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

LongCat-Flash-Thinking also accepts a larger context window (128,000 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

  • overall performance matters — it scores 28.6 and ranks #136 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning — it leads those capability indexes
  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 6 of 8 exact shared results
  • you process long inputs — it offers a 128,000 token context window
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2025

Choose Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking

  • cost matters — it's about 1.1x cheaper per token

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

LongCat-Flash-Thinking
Meituan
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
28.6
#136
23.8
#174
Reasoning
28.8
#127
24.5
#158
Agents
13.0
#98
12.2
#106
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
6 of 8
2 of 8
Input price
$0.30 / M
$0.15 / M
Output price
$1.20 / M
$1.50 / M
Context window
128,000
65,536

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

4 shared
Index
LongCat-Flash-Thinking
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking
Math
28.1#95
26.5#102
Tool use
15.5#85
11.0#117
Writing
18.3#28
14.1#50
Finance
27.4#39
27.9#36
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

14 reported for LongCat-Flash-Thinking · 23 for Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking

8 shared

LongCat-Flash-Thinking outperforms in 6 benchmarks (AIME 2025, BFCL-v3, GPQA, Tau2 Airline, Tau2 Retail, Tau2 Telecom), while Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is better at 2 benchmarks (MMLU-Pro, MMLU-Redux).

LongCat-Flash-Thinking shows notably better performance in the majority of 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

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking costs less

For input processing, LongCat-Flash-Thinking ($0.30/1M tokens) is 2.0x more expensive than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking ($0.15/1M tokens).

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

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

* 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
Input tokens$0.30
Output tokens$1.20
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

480.0B diff

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

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

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

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

Meituan
LongCat-Flash-Thinking
Input128,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking
Input65,536 tokens
Output65,536 tokens
Tue Sep 22 2026 • llm-stats.com

License

Usage and distribution terms

LongCat-Flash-Thinking 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-Thinking

MIT

Open weights

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

LongCat-Flash-Thinking was released on 2025-09-22, while Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking was released on 2025-09-10.

LongCat-Flash-Thinking is 0 month newer than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking.

LongCat-Flash-Thinking

Sep 22, 2025

1.0 years ago

1w newer
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking

Sep 10, 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 is available from Meituan. Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is available from Novita.

LongCat-Flash-Thinking

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

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

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against LongCat-Flash-Thinking and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

LongCat-Flash-Thinking
✓ Preferred
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking
Open in Playground

FAQ

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

Which is better, LongCat-Flash-Thinking or Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking?

LongCat-Flash-Thinking leads the LLM Stats Score 28.6 to 23.8. LongCat-Flash-Thinking 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 capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does LongCat-Flash-Thinking compare to Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking in benchmarks?

LongCat-Flash-Thinking scores MATH-500: 99.2%, ZebraLogic: 95.5%, AIME 2024: 93.3%, AIME 2025: 90.6%, MMLU-Redux: 89.3%. Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking scores MMLU-Redux: 92.5%, IFEval: 88.9%, AIME 2025: 87.8%, WritingBench: 84.6%, MMLU-Pro: 82.7%.

Is LongCat-Flash-Thinking cheaper than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking?

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is 2.0x cheaper for input tokens. LongCat-Flash-Thinking costs $0.30/M input and $1.20/M output via meituan. Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking costs $0.15/M input and $1.50/M output via novita.

What are the context window sizes for LongCat-Flash-Thinking and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking?

LongCat-Flash-Thinking supports 128K 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.

What are the main differences between LongCat-Flash-Thinking and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (28.6 vs 23.8), 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.

Who makes LongCat-Flash-Thinking and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking?

LongCat-Flash-Thinking is developed by Meituan and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.

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