Model Comparison
Mistral NeMo Instruct vs Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-ThinkingWhich is better in 2026?
Comparing Mistral NeMo Instruct and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.
Verdict: Mistral NeMo Instruct vs Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking — which is better?
Mistral NeMo Instruct (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, Mistral NeMo Instruct is roughly 3.3x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Mistral NeMo Instruct also accepts a larger context window (128,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Choose Mistral NeMo Instruct if…
- cost matters — it's about 3.3x cheaper per token
- you process long inputs — it offers a 128,000 token context window
Choose Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking if…
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2025
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Mistral NeMo Instruct 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 NeMo Instruct ($0.15/1M tokens) costs the same as Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking ($0.15/1M tokens).
For output processing, Mistral NeMo Instruct ($0.15/1M tokens) is 10.0x cheaper than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking ($1.50/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is more expensive than Mistral NeMo Instruct.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking has 68.0B more parameters than Mistral NeMo Instruct, making it 566.7% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Mistral NeMo Instruct accepts 128,000 input tokens compared to Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking's 65,536 tokens. Mistral NeMo Instruct 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
Both models are licensed under Apache 2.0.
Both models share the same licensing terms, providing consistent usage rights.
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Mistral NeMo Instruct was released on 2024-07-18, while Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking was released on 2025-09-10.
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is 14 months newer than Mistral NeMo Instruct.
Jul 18, 2024
2.0 years ago
Sep 10, 2025
10 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 NeMo Instruct is available from Google, Mistral AI. Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is available from Novita.
Mistral NeMo Instruct
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking
Outputs Comparison
Key Takeaways
Mistral NeMo Instruct
View detailsMistral AI
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking
View detailsAlibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
No standout differentiators in the data we have for this pair.
Detailed Comparison
Interactive Arena
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Mistral NeMo Instruct and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
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FAQ
Common questions about Mistral NeMo Instruct vs Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking.