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Qwen3.6 Plus vs Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct

Qwen3.6 Plus leads Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 27.0 to 9.6, and Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct costs 1.8x less per output token ($1.10 vs $1.95 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 35 benchmarks have a result for both.

Replace Qwen3.6 Plus Replace Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct
Qwen3.6 PlusQwen
Coding
44.1
Overall
56.2
Output $/M
$1.95
32
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B InstructQwen
Coding
No data
Overall
No data
Output $/M
$1.10
3
vs boards won of 35 shared

Qwen3.6 Plus or Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct: which to pick

Only Qwen3.6 Plus has a coding score, 44.1 on the Vibe Coding Index; Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.

Pick Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct for output tokens 1.8x cheaper ($1.10 vs $1.95 per million) and work measured by LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare or LMArena Text: Japanese, where it leads.

Model AQwen3.6 PlusQwen44.1/1003 independent benchmarks$1.19 per solved taskModel BQwen3 Next 80B A3B InstructQwenNot benchmarkedNo coding benchmarkNo cost per solved task
Shared results
35
Qwen3.6 Plus only
48
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct only
6
Like-for-like categories
7 of 9

Only benchmarks that tested both models count toward a pick; a result only one model has is shown but not compared.

Which one for your work

Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.

At a glance

Coding index
Qwen3.6 Plus 44.1 from 3 benchmarks, Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct not benchmarked.
Widest category
Agentic work, 56.1 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
Widest single gap
τ²-Bench Telecom: Qwen3.6 Plus 97.7% against Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct 41.5%, 56.1 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
Output price
Qwen3.6 Plus $1.95 against Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct $1.10 per million output tokens, 1.8x apart.
Context window
Qwen3.6 Plus takes 1M tokens, Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct 262K.

Benchmark by benchmark

First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.

Boards won, where both have a result
CategoryQwen3.6 PlusBarsQwen3 Next 80B A3B InstructTies
Coding30
Intelligence10
Agentic work10
Reasoning50
Math20
Knowledge31
General172
All shared boards323
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index30
Coding benchmarks for Qwen3.6 Plus and Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct
BenchmarkQwen3.6 PlusQwen3 Next 80B A3B InstructLeader
LMArena WebDev1461Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
AA Coding Index54.5Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
LiveCodeBench (Vals AI)86.0%Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI)73.4%Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI)25.6%Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
Code migration (Vals AI)11.1%Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
ProgramBench (Vals AI)0.0%Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI)53.2%Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run)Not measured78.4%Only Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct measured
Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run)43.9%9.8%Qwen3.6 Plus
ALE-Bench670.1Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
LMArena Text: coding14671440Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: software and IT14621447Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena WebDev: React1454Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
LMArena WebDev: HTML1463Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
LMArena WebDev: from an image1472Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
Neither model has a result on the other 23 boards here
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
Intelligence benchmarks for Qwen3.6 Plus and Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct
BenchmarkQwen3.6 PlusQwen3 Next 80B A3B InstructLeader
AA Intelligence Index27.09.6Qwen3.6 Plus
Epoch Capabilities Index147.3Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
Agentic work benchmarks for Qwen3.6 Plus and Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct
BenchmarkQwen3.6 PlusQwen3 Next 80B A3B InstructLeader
Finance Agent (Vals AI)40.9%Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI)7.7%Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
Legal Research Bench (Vals AI)14.9%Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI)32.9%Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
τ²-Bench Telecom97.7%41.5%Qwen3.6 Plus
Vending-Bench 2$5,115Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
Neither model has a result on the other 35 boards here
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index50
Reasoning benchmarks for Qwen3.6 Plus and Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct
BenchmarkQwen3.6 PlusQwen3 Next 80B A3B InstructLeader
GPQA Diamond87.4%Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
MMMU Pro (Vals AI)84.2%Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run)88.2%75.9%Qwen3.6 Plus
Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run)27.8%12.6%Qwen3.6 Plus
GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run)88.4%Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
Chess puzzles14.0%Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
Mystery game puzzles12.0%Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
LMArena Text: hard prompts14481428Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: expert14541417Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: hard prompts in English14551431Qwen3.6 Plus
Kagi LLM BenchmarkNot measured66.7%Only Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct measured
Neither model has a result on the other 11 boards here
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
Math benchmarks for Qwen3.6 Plus and Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct
BenchmarkQwen3.6 PlusQwen3 Next 80B A3B InstructLeader
AIME94.6%Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
AA Math IndexNot measured84.3Only Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct measured
AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run)Not measured84.3%Only Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct measured
OTIS Mock AIME93.3%Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 338.2%Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
LMArena Text: math14491440Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: mathematical work14481434Qwen3.6 Plus
Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index31
Knowledge benchmarks for Qwen3.6 Plus and Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct
BenchmarkQwen3.6 PlusQwen3 Next 80B A3B InstructLeader
MMLU Pro87.7%Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
LegalBench (Vals AI)84.2%Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
CaseLaw (Vals AI)51.5%Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
CorpFin (Vals AI)61.9%Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
TaxEval (Vals AI)74.7%Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
MortgageTax (Vals AI)68.0%Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
MedCode (Vals AI)36.9%Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run)Not measured82.4%Only Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct measured
SimpleQA Verified44.1%Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
LMArena Text: science14391434Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare14421455Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct
LMArena Text: legal and government14371431Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: business and finance14301422Qwen3.6 Plus
Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index8 boards, none shared
Web design benchmarks for Qwen3.6 Plus and Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct
BenchmarkQwen3.6 PlusQwen3 Next 80B A3B InstructLeader
Design Arena: websites1243Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
Design Arena: UI components1230Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
Design Arena: game dev1211Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
Design Arena: data viz1228Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
Design Arena: 3D1202Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
Design Arena: all code categories1236Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
Design Arena: SVG1161Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
Design Arena: ASCII art1113Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index172
General benchmarks for Qwen3.6 Plus and Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct
BenchmarkQwen3.6 PlusQwen3 Next 80B A3B InstructLeader
SAGE (Vals AI)44.9%Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
MedScribe (Vals AI)77.0%Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
Vals Multimodal Index51.5%Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
IFBench75.2%60.7%Qwen3.6 Plus
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR)78.3%63.7%Qwen3.6 Plus
DTBench81.9%Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
LMCA33.1%Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
Fiction.LiveBenchNot measured55.6%Only Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct measured
CL-bench20.3%Not measuredOnly Qwen3.6 Plus measured
LMArena Text14361417Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: instruction following14241388Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: creative writing14041333Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: English14451421Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: non-English14241407Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: Chinese14771460Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: German14511416Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: Japanese13901395Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct
LMArena Text: Korean13791363Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: French14551414Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: Spanish14321435Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct
LMArena Text: Russian14341404Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: Polish14331398Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: multi-turn14381416Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: longer queries14391402Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: writing and language14181355Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: entertainment and media14021349Qwen3.6 Plus
Neither model has a result on the other 20 boards here
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
Image generation benchmarks for Qwen3.6 Plus and Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct
BenchmarkQwen3.6 PlusQwen3 Next 80B A3B InstructLeader
Neither model has a result on 5 boards here

What each workload costs

Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.

Chat turn

1K input + 500 output tokens

Qwen3.6 Plus$0.0013Fits in one request
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct$0.0006Fits in one request

Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct costs less

Repository review

50K input + 3K output tokens

Qwen3.6 Plus$0.022Fits in one request
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct$0.0083Fits in one request

Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct costs less

Agent loop

200K input + 10K output tokens

Qwen3.6 Plus$0.085Fits in one request
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct$0.031Fits in one request

Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct costs less

Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.

Specification differences

The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.

Specifications of Qwen3.6 Plus and Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct
SpecificationQwen3.6 PlusQwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct
MakerQwenQwen
WeightsNo public weights listedOpen weights
ReleasedApril 2, 2026September 11, 2025
Context window1M262K
Input $/Mtok$0.325$0.10
Output $/Mtok$1.95$1.10
Coding index44.1Not benchmarked
Independent measurements behind it30
Cost per solved task$1.19Not computable
SourceOpenRouter listingOpenRouter listing

Questions

Is Qwen3.6 Plus better than Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct for coding?

Only Qwen3.6 Plus has a coding score, 44.1 on the Vibe Coding Index; Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct for output tokens 1.8x cheaper ($1.10 vs $1.95 per million) and work measured by LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare or LMArena Text: Japanese, where it leads.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6 Plus or Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct?

Qwen3.6 Plus costs $0.325 per million input tokens and $1.95 per million output tokens; Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct costs $0.10 and $1.10. Cost per solved task is known for Qwen3.6 Plus only.

Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3.6 Plus or Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct?

Qwen3.6 Plus, with 1M tokens against 262K.

How many benchmarks is the Qwen3.6 Plus vs Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct comparison based on?

35 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Qwen3.6 Plus's coding index rests on 3 independent benchmarks and Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct's on 0. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.

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