Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct vs Step-3.5-Flash: Specs & Benchmark Comparison
| Characteristic | Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct | Step-3.5-Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Alibaba | StepFun |
| Release Date | September 9, 2025 | February 1, 2026 |
| Parameters | 80B | 196B |
| Multimodal | No | Yes |
| Context (input) | 66K | 66K |
| Context (output) | 66K | 8K |
| Input Price / 1M | $0.15 | $0.10 |
| Output Price / 1M | $1.50 | $0.40 |
| Average Score | 0.9 | 0.8 |
Verdict
Step-3.5-Flash leads in 2 out of 4 comparison categories.
Overall Performance
Both models show comparable average scores: Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct — 0.9, Step-3.5-Flash — 0.8.
API Cost
Step-3.5-Flash is 3.3x cheaper: input $0.10/1M vs $0.15/1M tokens.
Context Window
Same context size: 66K tokens.
Recency
Step-3.5-Flash is newer: released 2/1/2026 vs 9/9/2025.
More About These Models
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Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better for coding — Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct or Step-3.5-Flash?
Direct comparison on the SWE-Bench benchmark is not available. We recommend reviewing other metrics on the comparison page.
Which model is cheaper — Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct or Step-3.5-Flash?
Step-3.5-Flash is cheaper for input: $0.10 per 1M tokens vs $0.15.
Which has a larger context window — Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct or Step-3.5-Flash?
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct supports a larger context: 65,536 tokens vs 65,536.
The Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct and Step-3.5-Flash comparison is updated for 2026. Data includes benchmark results, API pricing, context window size and other specifications. For more detailed information, visit the Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct or Step-3.5-Flash page. See also the complete list of AI model comparisons.