Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking vs Qwen3.8-Flash-Next
Qwen3.8-Flash-Next significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3.8-Flash-Next is better at 2 benchmarks (GPQA, LiveCodeBench v6). Qwen3.8-Flash-Next significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking
- you want predictable pricing at $0.15/M input and $1.50/M output
Choose Qwen3.8-Flash-Next
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 2 of 2 shared benchmarks
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Aug 2026
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3.8-Flash-Next is better at 2 benchmarks (GPQA, LiveCodeBench v6).
Qwen3.8-Flash-Next significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Playground indexes and blind preference scores
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen3.8-Flash-Next has 45.0B more parameters than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking, making it 56.3% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Only Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking specifies input context (65,536 tokens). Only Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking specifies output context (65,536 tokens).
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Qwen3.8-Flash-Next supports multimodal inputs, whereas Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking does not.
Qwen3.8-Flash-Next can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking
Qwen3.8-Flash-Next
License
Usage and distribution terms
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is licensed under Apache 2.0, while Qwen3.8-Flash-Next uses Qwen Community License 1.0.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Qwen Community License 1.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking was released on 2025-09-10, while Qwen3.8-Flash-Next was released on 2026-08-26.
Qwen3.8-Flash-Next is 12 months newer than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking.
Sep 10, 2025
11 months ago
Aug 26, 2026
0 days ago
11mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking and Qwen3.8-Flash-Next side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking vs Qwen3.8-Flash-Next.