o3-mini vs Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct
o3-mini and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct are closely matched at 21.5 and 20.2 on the LLM Stats Score. Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct is 5.6x cheaper per token.
OpenAI · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
o3-mini and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 21.5 and 20.2.
In the 6 individual benchmarks reported for both models, o3-mini wins 4; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
On price, Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct is roughly 5.6x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct also accepts a larger context window (262,144 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 o3-mini
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 4 of 6 exact shared results
Choose Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct
- cost matters — it's about 5.6x cheaper per token
- you process long inputs — it offers a 262,144 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2025
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
25 reported for o3-mini · 24 for Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct
o3-mini outperforms in 4 benchmarks (Aider-Polyglot, GPQA, IFEval, Multi-IF), while Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct is better at 2 benchmarks (TAU-bench Airline, TAU-bench Retail).
o3-mini shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, o3-mini ($1.10/1M tokens) is 12.2x more expensive than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct ($0.09/1M tokens).
For output processing, o3-mini ($4.40/1M tokens) is 4.0x more expensive than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct ($1.10/1M tokens).
In conclusion, o3-mini is more expensive than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct accepts 262,144 input tokens compared to o3-mini's 200,000 tokens. Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct can generate longer responses up to 262,144 tokens, while o3-mini is limited to 100,000 tokens.
License
Usage and distribution terms
o3-mini is licensed under a proprietary license, while Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct uses Apache 2.0.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Proprietary
Closed source
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
o3-mini was released on 2025-01-30, while Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct was released on 2025-09-10.
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct is 7 months newer than o3-mini.
Jan 30, 2025
1.6 years ago
Sep 10, 2025
1.0 years ago
7mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
o3-mini has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2023-09-30, while Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm o3-mini's training data extends to 2023-09-30, but cannot make a direct comparison without Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct's cutoff date.
Sep 2023
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Provider Availability
o3-mini is available from Azure, OpenAI. Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct is available from DeepInfra, Novita.
o3-mini
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against o3-mini and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about o3-mini vs Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct.