Model Comparison

Phi-3.5-mini-instruct vs Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Phi-3.5-mini-instruct is 4.9x cheaper per token.

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Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

2 benchmarks

Phi-3.5-mini-instruct outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is better at 2 benchmarks (GPQA, MMLU-Pro).

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

Tue Apr 21 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Phi-3.5-mini-instruct costs less

For input processing, Phi-3.5-mini-instruct ($0.10/1M tokens) is 1.5x cheaper than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking ($0.15/1M tokens).

For output processing, Phi-3.5-mini-instruct ($0.10/1M tokens) is 15.0x cheaper than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking ($1.50/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is more expensive than Phi-3.5-mini-instruct.*

* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens

Lowest available price from all providers
Tue Apr 21 2026 • llm-stats.com
Microsoft
Phi-3.5-mini-instruct
Input tokens$0.10
Output tokens$0.10
Best providerAzure
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

76.2B diff

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking has 76.2B more parameters than Phi-3.5-mini-instruct, making it 2005.3% larger.

Microsoft
Phi-3.5-mini-instruct
3.8Bparameters
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking
80.0Bparameters
3.8B
Phi-3.5-mini-instruct
80.0B
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Phi-3.5-mini-instruct accepts 128,000 input tokens compared to Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking's 65,536 tokens. Phi-3.5-mini-instruct can generate longer responses up to 128,000 tokens, while Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is limited to 65,536 tokens.

Microsoft
Phi-3.5-mini-instruct
Input128,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking
Input65,536 tokens
Output65,536 tokens
Tue Apr 21 2026 • llm-stats.com

License

Usage and distribution terms

Phi-3.5-mini-instruct 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.

Phi-3.5-mini-instruct

MIT

Open weights

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Phi-3.5-mini-instruct was released on 2024-08-23, while Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking was released on 2025-09-10.

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is 13 months newer than Phi-3.5-mini-instruct.

Phi-3.5-mini-instruct

Aug 23, 2024

1.7 years ago

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking

Sep 10, 2025

7 months ago

1.0yr newer

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

Phi-3.5-mini-instruct is available from Azure. Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is available from Novita.

Phi-3.5-mini-instruct

azure logo
Azure
Input Price:Input: $0.10/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.10/1M

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

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Key Takeaways

Microsoft
Larger context window (128,000 tokens)
Less expensive input tokens
Less expensive output tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Higher GPQA score (77.2% vs 30.4%)
Higher MMLU-Pro score (82.7% vs 47.4%)

Detailed Comparison

AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Microsoft
Phi-3.5-mini-instruct
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking

FAQ

Common questions about Phi-3.5-mini-instruct vs Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Phi-3.5-mini-instruct is made by Microsoft 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.
Phi-3.5-mini-instruct scores GSM8k: 86.2%, ARC-C: 84.6%, RULER: 84.1%, PIQA: 81.0%, OpenBookQA: 79.2%. Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking scores MMLU-Redux: 92.5%, IFEval: 88.9%, AIME 2025: 87.8%, WritingBench: 84.6%, MMLU-Pro: 82.7%.
Phi-3.5-mini-instruct is 1.5x cheaper for input tokens. Phi-3.5-mini-instruct costs $0.10/M input and $0.10/M output via azure. Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking costs $0.15/M input and $1.50/M output via novita.
Phi-3.5-mini-instruct 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.
Key differences include context window (128K vs 66K), input pricing ($0.10 vs $0.15/M), licensing (MIT vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.
Phi-3.5-mini-instruct is developed by Microsoft and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.