Model Comparison

Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) vs Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-ThinkingWhich is better in 2026?

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) vs Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking — which is better?

Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) (by Mistral AI) and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking (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.

Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is better at 1 benchmark (MMLU-Redux). Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) if…

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Dec 2025

Choose Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 1 of 1 shared benchmarks

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

1 benchmarks

Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is better at 1 benchmark (MMLU-Redux).

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Tue Jul 28 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

72.0B diff

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking has 72.0B more parameters than Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512), making it 900.0% larger.

Mistral AI
Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512)
8.0Bparameters
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking
80.0Bparameters
8.0B
Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512)
80.0B
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking specifies input context (65,536 tokens). Only Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking specifies output context (65,536 tokens).

Mistral AI
Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512)
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking
Input65,536 tokens
Output65,536 tokens
Tue Jul 28 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) supports multimodal inputs, whereas Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking does not.

Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512)

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Both models are licensed under Apache 2.0.

Both models share the same licensing terms, providing consistent usage rights.

Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512)

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) was released on 2025-12-04, while Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking was released on 2025-09-10.

Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) is 3 months newer than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking.

Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512)

Dec 4, 2025

7 months ago

2mo newer
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking

Sep 10, 2025

10 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

Mistral AI
Supports multimodal inputs
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Larger context window (65,536 tokens)
Higher MMLU-Redux score (92.5% vs 79.3%)

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512)
✓ Preferred
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Mistral AI
Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512)
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking

FAQ

Common questions about Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) vs Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking.

Which is better, Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) or Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking?

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) is made by Mistral AI and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking 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 Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) compare to Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking in benchmarks?

Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) scores MMLU-Redux: 79.3%, MMLU: 76.1%, Multilingual MMLU: 70.6%, TriviaQA: 68.1%, MATH (CoT): 62.6%. Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking scores MMLU-Redux: 92.5%, IFEval: 88.9%, AIME 2025: 87.8%, WritingBench: 84.6%, MMLU-Pro: 82.7%.

What are the context window sizes for Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking?

Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) supports an unknown number of 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 Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking?

Key differences include multimodal support (yes vs no). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking?

Ministral 3 (8B Base 2512) is developed by Mistral AI and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.

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