Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking leads Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 11.2 to 9.9, and Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking costs 1.6x less per output token ($1.20 vs $1.90 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 29 benchmarks have a result for both.
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking or Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct: which to pick
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking for output tokens 1.6x cheaper ($1.20 vs $1.90 per million) and work measured by LMArena Text: coding or LMArena Text: software and IT, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 29
- Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking only
- 1
- Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct only
- 20
- Like-for-like categories
- 6 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.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
No call
Neither has a coding score yet.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking leads, 11.2 against 9.9.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
No call
Both take 262K tokens.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking $0.0008, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct $0.0012 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking not benchmarked, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- General, 11.4 points apart on average over 17 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- LMArena Text: Japanese: Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking 1280 against Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct 1385, 17.4 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking $1.20 against Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct $1.90 per million output tokens, 1.6x apart.
- Context window
- Both take 262K tokens.
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.
| Category | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking | Bars | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 2 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 3 | ||
| Math | 0 | 2 | ||
| Knowledge | 0 | 4 | ||
| General | 0 | 17 | ||
| All shared boards | 1 | 28 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index02
| Benchmark | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Coding Index | 17.4 | Not measured | Only Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 64.6% | Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 11.4% | Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1392 | 1438 | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1393 | 1442 | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct |
| Neither model has a result on the other 38 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 11.2 | 9.9 | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index1 board, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| τ²-Bench Telecom | Not measured | 54.1% | Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 41 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index03
| Benchmark | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 77.2% | Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 11.9% | Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1371 | 1428 | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1376 | 1442 | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1384 | 1439 | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | Not measured | 1255 | Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | Not measured | 1277 | Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Math Index | Not measured | 88.3 | Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 88.3% | Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1399 | 1425 | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1390 | 1419 | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct |
| Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index04
| Benchmark | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 83.6% | Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1384 | 1444 | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1392 | 1431 | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1364 | 1438 | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1360 | 1433 | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct |
| Neither model has a result on the other 15 boards here | |||
Web designNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 9 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index017
| Benchmark | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| IFBench | Not measured | 56.5% | Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | Not measured | 63.7% | Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text | 1368 | 1420 | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1344 | 1406 | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1314 | 1366 | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct |
| LMArena Vision | Not measured | 1247 | Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1392 | 1429 | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1342 | 1405 | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1407 | 1463 | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct |
| LMArena Text: German | 1356 | 1424 | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1280 | 1385 | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1310 | 1394 | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct |
| LMArena Text: French | 1351 | 1452 | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1358 | 1428 | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1337 | 1408 | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1345 | 1419 | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1346 | 1428 | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1353 | 1419 | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1330 | 1392 | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1312 | 1368 | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct |
| LMArena Vision: English | Not measured | 1256 | Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | Not measured | 1283 | Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | Not measured | 1253 | Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | Not measured | 1209 | Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Vision: captioning | Not measured | 1281 | Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Vision: recognizing things | Not measured | 1249 | Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | Not measured | 1220 | Only Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 21 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 Next 80B A3B Thinking costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking 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.
| Specification | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Qwen | Qwen |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | September 11, 2025 | September 23, 2025 |
| Context window | 262K | 262K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.15 | $0.21 |
| Output $/Mtok | $1.20 | $1.90 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 0 | 0 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking better than Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct for coding?
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking for output tokens 1.6x cheaper ($1.20 vs $1.90 per million) and work measured by LMArena Text: coding or LMArena Text: software and IT, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking or Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct?
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking costs $0.15 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct costs $0.21 and $1.90. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking or Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct?
Neither: both take 262K tokens.
How many benchmarks is the Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct comparison based on?
29 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking's coding index rests on 0 independent benchmarks and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct's on 0. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.