Model Comparison
Qwen3 Max vs Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct
Qwen3 Max shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks. Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct is 3.3x cheaper per token.
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Qwen3 Max outperforms in 3 benchmarks (AIME 2025, LiveCodeBench v6, SuperGPQA), while Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct is better at 1 benchmark (GPQA).
Qwen3 Max shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Human preference votes
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Qwen3 Max ($0.50/1M tokens) is 3.3x more expensive than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct ($0.15/1M tokens).
For output processing, Qwen3 Max ($5.00/1M tokens) is 3.3x more expensive than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct ($1.50/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Qwen3 Max is more expensive than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen3 Max has 920.0B more parameters than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct, making it 1150.0% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Qwen3 Max accepts 256,000 input tokens compared to Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct's 65,536 tokens. Qwen3 Max can generate longer responses up to 131,072 tokens, while Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct is limited to 65,536 tokens.
License
Usage and distribution terms
Qwen3 Max 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
Qwen3 Max was released on 2025-12-15, while Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct was released on 2025-09-10.
Qwen3 Max is 3 months newer than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct.
Dec 15, 2025
5 months ago
3mo newerSep 10, 2025
8 months ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
Qwen3 Max is available from Novita. Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct is available from Novita.
Qwen3 Max
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct
Outputs Comparison
Key Takeaways
Qwen3 Max
View detailsAlibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct
View detailsAlibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Detailed Comparison
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FAQ
Common questions about Qwen3 Max vs Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct.