Model Comparison
Mistral Large 2 vs Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-ThinkingWhich is better in 2026?
Comparing Mistral Large 2 and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.
Verdict: Mistral Large 2 vs Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking — which is better?
Mistral Large 2 (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.
On price, Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is roughly 6.2x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Mistral Large 2 also accepts a larger context window (128,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Choose Mistral Large 2 if…
- you process long inputs — it offers a 128,000 token context window
Choose Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking if…
- cost matters — it's about 6.2x cheaper per token
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2025
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Mistral Large 2 and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinkingdon't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.
Arena Performance
Human preference votes
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Mistral Large 2 ($2.00/1M tokens) is 13.3x more expensive than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking ($0.15/1M tokens).
For output processing, Mistral Large 2 ($6.00/1M tokens) is 4.0x more expensive than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking ($1.50/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Mistral Large 2 is more expensive than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Mistral Large 2 has 43.0B more parameters than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking, making it 53.8% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Mistral Large 2 accepts 128,000 input tokens compared to Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking's 65,536 tokens. Mistral Large 2 can generate longer responses up to 128,000 tokens, while Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is limited to 65,536 tokens.
License
Usage and distribution terms
Mistral Large 2 is licensed under Mistral Research License, 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.
Mistral Research License
Open weights
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Mistral Large 2 was released on 2024-07-24, while Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking was released on 2025-09-10.
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is 14 months newer than Mistral Large 2.
Jul 24, 2024
1.9 years ago
Sep 10, 2025
9 months ago
1.1yr newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
Mistral Large 2 is available from Google, Mistral AI. Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is available from Novita.
Mistral Large 2
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking
Outputs Comparison
Key Takeaways
Mistral Large 2
View detailsMistral AI
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking
View detailsAlibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Detailed Comparison
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FAQ
Common questions about Mistral Large 2 vs Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking.