AI model comparison
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking vs Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507
Pricing, context window, benchmarks, and features compared side by side. Or skip the guesswork and send one prompt to both.
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is a reasoning-first chat model in the Qwen3-Next line that outputs structured “thinking” traces by default.
- Input / 1M
- $0.15
- Output / 1M
- $1.20
- Context
- 262K
Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 is a multilingual, instruction-tuned mixture-of-experts language model based on the Qwen3-235B architecture, with 22B active parameters per forward pass.
- Input / 1M
- $0.09
- Output / 1M
- $0.55
- Context
- 262K
At a glance
Quick verdict
How the two models stack up on the things people ask about most.
Lower price
Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507
2.0x cheaper for a typical chat
Higher intelligence score
Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507
12 vs 11.2 on Artificial Analysis
Larger context window
Tie
262K vs 262K tokens
Newer release
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking
Released September 11, 2025
Benchmarks
Benchmark scores
Independent scores from Artificial Analysis. Higher is better.
Intelligence index
Coding index
Agentic index
Pricing
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking vs Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 API pricing
Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.
| Metric | ||
|---|---|---|
| Input tokensPer 1M tokens | $0.15 | $0.09 |
| Output tokensPer 1M tokens | $1.20 | $0.55 |
| Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens | Not available | Not available |
| Cache writePer 1M tokens | Not available | Not available |
What it costs in practice
Estimated cost per 1,000 requests at standard rates. Coding and long-document figures also show the cost when the input is already cached.
Chat message
2K in, 500 out
Coding task
30K in, 4K out
Long document summary
150K in, 2K out
Specs
Context window and capabilities
How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.
| Metric | ||
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 262K tokens | 262K tokens |
| Max output | 236K tokens | 16K tokens |
| Input types | Text | Text |
| Output types | Text | Text |
| Reasoning effort levels | Not available | Not available |
| Default reasoning effort | Not available | Not available |
| Release date | September 11, 2025 | July 21, 2025 |
Features
Supported features
API features available for each model.
| Metric | ||
|---|---|---|
| Tool calling | Supported | Supported |
| Structured outputs | Supported | Supported |
| JSON mode | Supported | Supported |
| Reasoning | Supported | Not supported |
| Temperature | Supported | Supported |
| Stop sequences | Supported | Supported |
| Deterministic seed | Supported | Supported |
| Verbosity control | Not supported | Not supported |
Our take
Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 is 2.0x cheaper for a typical chat. Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (12 vs 11.2). The right pick depends on your workload, so the quickest way to settle it is to send the same prompt to both and compare.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking or Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 cheaper?
Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 is cheaper for a typical chat (2K input tokens and 500 output tokens). Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 costs $0.09 per 1M input tokens and $0.55 per 1M output tokens, while Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking costs $0.15 per 1M input tokens and $1.20 per 1M output tokens.
Which has a bigger context window, Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking or Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507?
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking supports up to 262K tokens of context, compared with 262K for Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507.
Is Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking smarter than Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507?
On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking scores 11.2 and Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 scores 12, putting Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 ahead. Benchmarks don't capture everything, so the best test is running your own prompts through both.
Can I use Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking and Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 at the same time?
Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to multiple models at once, so you can see Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking and Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 answer side by side and keep the better response.
Why choose? Ask both.
Send one prompt to Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking and Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.