Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking are closely matched at 20.1 and 18.3 on the LLM Stats Score. Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct is 1.2x cheaper per token.

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 20.1 and 18.3.

In the 17 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct wins 11; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.

On price, Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct is roughly 1.2x 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 Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct

you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 11 of 17 exact shared results
cost matters — it's about 1.2x cheaper per token
you process long inputs — it offers a 262,144 token context window

Choose Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking

you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2025

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Better token value: Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Core performance indexes

LLM Stats Score

20.1

#197 · 24 evals

Best

18.3

#213 · 50 evals

Reasoning

19.9

#192 · 17 evals

Best

19.5

#199 · 28 evals

Agents

8.3

#132 · 1 evals

Best

7.2

#136 · 2 evals

Cost, coverage & limits

Benchmark wins

11 of 17

Best

6 of 17

Input price

$0.09 / M

Best

$0.20 / M

Output price

$1.10 / M

$0.99 / M

Best

Context window

262,144

Best

131,072

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

4 shared

Index

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking

Math

20.6#156 · 8 evals

22.3#138 · 11 evals

Writing

10.0#74 · 7 evals

12.0#63 · 3 evals

Finance

26.0#52 · 5 evals

23.5#67 · 6 evals

Legal

25.8#45 · 4 evals

23.6#54 · 5 evals

Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

24 reported for Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct · 50 for Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking

17 shared

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct outperforms in 11 benchmarks (Arena-Hard v2, BFCL-v3, Creative Writing v3, IFEval, Include, LiveBench 20241125, MMLU-Pro, MMLU-ProX, Multi-IF, SuperGPQA, WritingBench), while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking is better at 5 benchmarks (AIME 2025, GPQA, HMMT25, LiveCodeBench v6, PolyMATH).

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.

Sun Sep 20 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct costs less

For input processing, Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct ($0.09/1M tokens) is 2.2x cheaper than Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking ($0.20/1M tokens).

For output processing, Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct ($1.10/1M tokens) is 1.1x more expensive than Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking ($0.99/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking is more expensive than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct.*

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

Lowest available price from all providers

Sun Sep 20 2026 • llm-stats.com

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct

Input tokens$0.09

Output tokens$1.10

Best providerDeepinfra

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking

Input tokens$0.20

Output tokens$0.99

Best providerNovita

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue→

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

49.0B diff

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct has 49.0B more parameters than Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking, making it 158.1% larger.

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct

80.0Bparameters

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking

31.0Bparameters

80.0B

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct

31.0B

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct accepts 262,144 input tokens compared to Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking's 131,072 tokens. Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct can generate longer responses up to 262,144 tokens, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking is limited to 32,768 tokens.

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct

Input262,144 tokens

Output262,144 tokens

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking

Input131,072 tokens

Output32,768 tokens

Sun Sep 20 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking supports multimodal inputs, whereas Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct does not.

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct

Text

Images

Audio

Video

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking

Text

Images

Audio

Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Both models are licensed under Apache 2.0.

Both models share the same licensing terms, providing consistent usage rights.

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct was released on 2025-09-10, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking was released on 2025-09-22.

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking is 0 month newer than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct.

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct

Sep 10, 2025

1.0 years ago

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking

Sep 22, 2025

12 months ago

1w 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

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct is available from DeepInfra, Novita. Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking is available from Novita, DeepInfra.

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct

Deepinfra

Input Price:Input: $0.09/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.10/1M

Novita

Input Price:Input: $0.15/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.50/1M

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking

Novita

Input Price:Input: $0.20/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.00/1M

Deepinfra

Input Price:Input: $0.29/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.99/1M

* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct

✓ Preferred

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking

Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking.

Which is better, Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct or Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking?

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking are closely matched on the LLM Stats Score at 20.1 and 18.3. Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct compare to Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking in benchmarks?

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct scores MMLU-Redux: 90.9%, MultiPL-E: 87.8%, IFEval: 87.6%, WritingBench: 87.3%, Creative Writing v3: 85.3%. Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking scores DocVQAtest: 95.0%, ScreenSpot: 94.7%, MMLU-Redux: 90.9%, MMBench-V1.1: 88.9%, MMLU: 87.6%.

Is Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct cheaper than Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking?

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct is 2.2x cheaper for input tokens. Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct costs $0.09/M input and $1.10/M output via deepinfra. Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking costs $0.20/M input and $0.99/M output via novita.

What are the context window sizes for Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking?

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct supports 262K tokens and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking supports 131K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (20.1 vs 18.3), context window (262K vs 131K), input pricing ($0.09 vs $0.20/M), multimodal support (no vs yes). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking

Which is better?

Choose Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct

Choose Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking

At a glance

Capability indexes

Individual benchmarks

Human preference

Pricing Analysis

Model Size

Context Window

Input capabilities

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking

License

Release Timeline

Knowledge Cutoff

Provider Availability

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking

Outputs Comparison

Judge for yourself.

FAQ

Which is better, Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct or Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking?

How does Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct compare to Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking in benchmarks?

Is Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct cheaper than Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking?

What are the context window sizes for Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking?

What are the main differences between Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking?

More Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct comparisons

More Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking comparisons

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking

Which is better?

Choose Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct

Choose Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking

At a glance

Capability indexes

Individual benchmarks

Human preference

Pricing Analysis

Model Size

Context Window

Input capabilities

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking

License

Release Timeline

Knowledge Cutoff

Provider Availability

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking

Outputs Comparison

Judge for yourself.

Which is better, Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct or Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking?

How does Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct compare to Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking in benchmarks?

Is Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct cheaper than Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking?

What are the context window sizes for Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking?

What are the main differences between Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct and Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking?

Related comparisons

More Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct comparisons

More Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking comparisons