Qwen3 235B A22B vs Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct
Wins 2 of 6 areas
Agents · Facts
Wins 3 of 6 areas
Coding · Long documents · Following instructions
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct wins more areas, narrowly.Qwen3 235B A22B is better at facts.
Scores updated · 29 tests both models report · How we compare
Where each one wins
Tests won in each of the six areas where both have results. Each piece is one test, so a longer bar means more evidence; grey means the two scored within a point of each other.
- CodingWriting and fixing software12Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct2 of 3 tests
- Long documentsFinding answers in very long texts01Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct1 of 1 test
- Following instructionsDoing exactly what it is asked01Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct1 of 1 test
- FactsGetting facts right instead of making them up20Qwen3 235B A22B2 of 2 tests
- AgentsCarrying out multi-step tasks on its own10Qwen3 235B A22B1 of 1 test
- ReasoningHard problems that need careful thinking11Even1 each · 1 tie
Agents, long documents and following instructions rest on a single test each.
What it costs
Prices per million tokens, roughly 750,000 words. The bars show the cost of a million tokens read plus a million written.
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct costs 61% less for the same work.
The biggest differences
The three tests each model wins by the widest margin. Scores are out of 100.
Where Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct pulls ahead
- Recent programming contest problemsLiveCodeBench v6+19.6points ahead
- Graduate-level biology, physics and chemistry questionsGPQA Diamond+3.8points ahead
- Hard command-line tasks in a real terminalTerminal-Bench Hard+1.5points ahead
Where Qwen3 235B A22B pulls ahead
- Avoids making up answers it doesn't knowAA-Omniscience · Non-hallucination+15.1points ahead
- Code for real scientific research problemsSciCode+9.2points ahead
- Real work tasks from 44 professionsGDPVal+5.4points ahead
Every test, side by side
All 29 tests both models report. The winning score is in its model's colour; marks a score checked independently.
CodingQwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct
- LiveCodeBench v6Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct by 19.63756.6+19.6
- SciCodeQwen3 235B A22B by 9.239.930.7+9.2
- Terminal-Bench HardQwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct by 1.56.17.6+1.5
ReasoningEven
- GPQA DiamondQwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct by 3.87073.8+3.8
- Humanity's Last ExamQwen3 235B A22B by 3.4117.6+3.4
- CritPttie00tie
FactsQwen3 235B A22B
- AA-Omniscience · Non-hallucinationQwen3 235B A22B by 15.122.47.3+15.1
- AA-Omniscience · AccuracyQwen3 235B A22B by 1.218.517.3+1.2
Long documentsQwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct
- AA-LCRQwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct by 52.7052.7+52.7
Following instructionsQwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct
- IFBenchQwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct by 138.739.7+1
Other results18 tests, not counted
Tests outside the eight areas. They are not counted above: several are summary scores built from other tests, or the same test under another name.
- HMMT 2025Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct by 42.211.954.1+42.2
- MultiPL-EQwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct by 21.965.987.8+21.9
- Tau2 airlineQwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct by 1926.545.5+19
- AA-OmniscienceQwen3 235B A22B by 14.8-44.7-59.5+14.8
- SuperGPQAQwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct by 14.744.158.8+14.7
- MMLU-ProQwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct by 12.468.280.6+12.4
- AIME 2025Qwen3 235B A22B by 1281.569.5+12
- MMLU-ProXQwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct by 1066.776.7+10
- TAU-bench (airline)Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct by 9.334.744+9.3
- IncludeQwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct by 5.473.578.9+5.4
- IFEvalQwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct by 4.483.287.6+4.4
- AA Agentic IndexQwen3 235B A22B by 4.218.414.2+4.2
- MMLU-ReduxQwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct by 3.587.490.9+3.5
- τ²-Bench Telecom (AA run)Qwen3 235B A22B by 2.42421.6+2.4
- TAU-bench (retail)Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct by 2.358.660.9+2.3
- Artificial Analysis Coding IndexQwen3 235B A22B by 2.117.415.3+2.1
- τ²-Bench (Retail)tie5757.3tie
- AA Intelligencetie9.59.6tie
Questions people ask
Which is better, Qwen3 235B A22B or Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct?
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct wins three of the six areas where both have results: coding, long documents and following instructions. Qwen3 235B A22B wins agents and facts. They are level on reasoning.
Which is better for coding?
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct. It wins 2 of the 3 coding tests both models report; Qwen3 235B A22B wins 1.
Which is cheaper?
Qwen3 235B A22B costs $0.70 per million input tokens and $2.80 per million output tokens; Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct costs $0.15 and $1.20. That makes Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct about 61% cheaper for the same work.
How do you compare the two?
We use the 29 benchmark tests both models have published scores on. The verdict counts the 11 tests in the eight capability areas, and a gap under one point (ten on rating-style scales) counts as a tie. The other 18 are listed but not counted, because several are summary scores or repeat a test. Each score is the one shown on the model's own page.