Compare / Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct vs MiniMax M2.5
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct vs MiniMax M2.5
Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 17 results on 3 sources that measured both models.
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct or MiniMax M2.5? The short answer
- Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct is cheaper: $0.35 against $0.52 per million tokens, 33% less.
- MiniMax M2.5 scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 22.8 against 9.6.
- On our business benchmarks, Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct ranks higher for writing.
- On our business benchmarks, MiniMax M2.5 ranks higher for reasoning and knowledge and sticking to the facts.
At a glance
| Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct | MiniMax M2.5 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per million tokens | $0.10 in · $1.10 out | $0.30 in · $1.20 out |
| Blended (3 in : 1 out) | $0.35 | $0.52 |
| Cheapest host, blended | $0.27 (Alibaba) | $0.44 (Venice) |
| Intelligence Index | 9.6 | 22.8 |
| Spring Prompt overall | – | – |
| Output speed, tokens a second | 180 | – |
| Context window | 262,144 tokens | 204,800 tokens |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Developer based in | China | China |
Prices are the developer's list price where we have read it, otherwise the typical host on OpenRouter; see every model's price. Intelligence and speed from Artificial Analysis.
Which is better for what
Each model's rank among models available today, for each kind of work, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. The better rank is in green.
| Use case | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct | MiniMax M2.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls | not measured | 132 of 161 |
| Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge | 140 of 195 | 80 of 195 |
| WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality | 104 of 187 | 112 of 187 |
| Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers | 117 of 153 | 103 of 153 |
Every shared result
| Benchmark | Metric | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct | MiniMax M2.5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena)reported | OverallArena rating | 1,419 | 1,386 |
| Arena (formerly LMArena)reported | Business, management and financeArena rating | 1,411 | 1,400 |
| Arena (formerly LMArena)reported | Creative writingArena rating | 1,313 | 1,357 |
| Arena (formerly LMArena)reported | Expert promptsArena rating | 1,399 | 1,425 |
| Arena (formerly LMArena)reported | Instruction followingArena rating | 1,376 | 1,381 |
| Arena (formerly LMArena)reported | OverallArena rating | 1,399 | 1,391 |
| Arena (formerly LMArena)reported | Writing, literature and languageArena rating | 1,342 | 1,369 |
| Artificial Analysisreported | Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score | 9.60 | 22.8 |
| Artificial Analysisreported | GPQA Diamond% of questions | 73.8% | 84.8% |
| Artificial Analysisreported | Humanity's Last Exam% of questions | 7.6% | 20.5% |
| Artificial Analysisreported | IFBench% of instructions | 39.7% | 71.6% |
| Artificial Analysisreported | Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions | 52.7% | 73.3% |
| Artificial Analysisreported | Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks | 7.6% | 34.8% |
| Artificial Analysisreported | Τ²-bench telecom% of tasks | 21.6% | 95.3% |
| UGI Leaderboardreported | Requested-length error% off the requested word count | 7.0% | 41.0% |
| UGI Leaderboardreported | Style adherencescore from 0 to 1 | 0.31 | 0.38 |
| UGI Leaderboardreported | Writing scorescore out of 100 | 41.8 | 41.7 |
Bold green marks the better value on that metric. Where a source reports ranges that overlap, the difference may not be meaningful; see the benchmark page for ranges.
Quick answers
Is Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct better than MiniMax M2.5?
It depends on the task. Among models available today, on our benchmarks and licensed sources, Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct ranks higher for writing; MiniMax M2.5 ranks higher for reasoning and knowledge and sticking to the facts.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct or MiniMax M2.5?
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct costs $0.35 per million tokens (three input to one output), against $0.52 for MiniMax M2.5.
Run Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct and MiniMax M2.5 on your own prompt
Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.