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Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Reasoning

Alibaba · released

Wins 2 of 6 areas

Coding · Long documents

Alibaba · released

Wins 3 of 6 areas

Agents · Facts · Following instructions

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Reasoning wins more areas, narrowly.Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct is cheaper and better at coding.

Scores updated · 26 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.

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$0.15 to read · $1.20 to write$1.35Price from Artificial Analysis
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Reasoning$0.20 to read · $2.40 to write$2.60Price from Artificial Analysis

Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct costs 48% 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 VL 30B A3B Reasoning pulls ahead

  • Recent programming contest problemsLiveCodeBench v6+7.6points aheadQwen3 VL 30B A3B Reasoning64.2Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct56.6
  • Follows unfamiliar, precisely checkable instructionsIFBench+5.4points aheadQwen3 VL 30B A3B Reasoning45.1Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct39.7
  • Avoids making up answers it doesn't knowAA-Omniscience · Non-hallucination+2.9points aheadQwen3 VL 30B A3B Reasoning10.2Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct7.3

Where Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct pulls ahead

  • Reasons across sets of long documentsAA-LCR+10points aheadQwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct52.7Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Reasoning42.7
  • Hard command-line tasks in a real terminalTerminal-Bench Hard+2.3points aheadQwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct7.6Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Reasoning5.3
  • Code for real scientific research problemsSciCode+1.9points aheadQwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct30.7Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Reasoning28.8

Every test, side by side

All 26 tests both models report. The winning score is in its model's colour; marks a score checked independently.

CodingQwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct

Full coding ranking

AgentsQwen3 VL 30B A3B Reasoning
  • GDPValQwen3 VL 30B A3B Reasoning by 1.96.48.3+1.9

Full agents ranking

ReasoningEven

Full reasoning ranking

FactsQwen3 VL 30B A3B Reasoning

Full facts ranking

Long documentsQwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct
  • AA-LCRQwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct by 1052.742.7+10

Full long documents ranking

Following instructionsQwen3 VL 30B A3B Reasoning
  • IFBenchQwen3 VL 30B A3B Reasoning by 5.439.745.1+5.4

Full following instructions ranking

Other results15 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.

Questions people ask

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

Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Reasoning wins three of the six areas where both have results: agents, facts and following instructions. Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct wins coding and long documents, and costs 48% less. 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 VL 30B A3B Reasoning wins 1.

Which is cheaper?

Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct costs $0.15 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Reasoning costs $0.20 and $2.40. That makes Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct about 48% cheaper for the same work.

How do you compare the two?

We use the 26 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 15 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.