Compare / Qwen3-32B vs Qwen3.5-35B-A3B

Qwen3-32B vs Qwen3.5-35B-A3B

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 21 results on 4 sources that measured both models.

AlibabaQwen3-32B Released 28 Apr 2025 · $0.14 in · $0.40 out
AlibabaQwen3.5-35B-A3B Released 24 Feb 2026 · $0.16 in · $1.30 out
Qwen3-32B wins 31 too close to callQwen3.5-35B-A3B wins 17

Of the 21 results both models have, the better value on each. Results whose reported ranges overlap are too close to call.

Results as of 9 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-09-dd620e778ac5).

Qwen3-32B or Qwen3.5-35B-A3B? The short answer

Pick Qwen3.5-35B-A3B if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 19.3 against 8.6). Pick Qwen3-32B if cost matters more: it costs 2.2 times less per token.

  • Qwen3-32B is cheaper: $0.21 against $0.45 per million tokens, 2.2 times less.
  • Qwen3.5-35B-A3B scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 19.3 against 8.6.
  • Qwen3.5-35B-A3B is newer: released 24 Feb 2026, against 28 Apr 2025 for Qwen3-32B.
  • On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Qwen3-32B does better for sticking to the facts; Qwen3.5-35B-A3B for reasoning and knowledge and writing.

Head to head

8.6
Intelligence Index
19.3
$0.21
Price per million tokens, blendedlower is better
$0.45
131,072
Context window, tokens
262,144

Every fact side by side

Qwen3-32BQwen3.5-35B-A3B
Price per million tokens$0.14 in · $0.40 out$0.16 in · $1.30 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.21$0.45
Cheapest host, blended$0.13 (DeepInfra, FP8)$0.25 (Darkbloom, FP4)
Intelligence Index8.619.3
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second––
Context window131,072 tokens262,144 tokens
Released28 Apr 202524 Feb 2026 (newer)
WeightsOpenOpen
Developer based inChinaChina

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 the models on sale today, for each kind of work, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. Further right is better; the better rank is in green.

Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 113 of 164 116 of 164
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 148 of 198 92 of 198
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 139 of 188 108 of 188
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 22 of 152 112 of 152

Every shared result

Each model's best result on every measure both have, grouped by benchmark, with the setting that produced it. Under each measure, every model that benchmark has measured is a grey tick, best to the right, so you can see where the two sit in the field. The headline measures of each benchmark come first; the rest are under "Show all". Green marks the better value; where a source reports ranges that overlap, neither is marked.

MeasureQwen3-32BQwen3.5-35B-A3B
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results
Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 195 · 147 of 387 measured 1,347 1,394
Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 203 · 139 of 380 measured 1,340 1,403
Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 205 · 163 of 385 measured 1,304 1,342
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 188 · 108 of 243 measured 8.6thinking reasoning 19.3
GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 167 · 84 of 231 measured 66.8%thinking reasoning 84.5%
Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 168 · 106 of 242 measured 7.4%thinking reasoning 21.0%
UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results
Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 134 · 97 of 230 measured 33.0no reasoning 42.6think-prefill reasoning
Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better 99 · 83 of 230 measured 19.0%no reasoning 17.0%no reasoning
Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better 175 · 151 of 230 measured 0.32no reasoning 0.33no reasoning
Vectara Hallucination Leaderboard reported by Vectara Hallucination Leaderboard · 2 results
Hallucination rate · Vectara% of summaries, lower is better 24 · 62 of 104 measured 5.9% 10.5%
Answer rate · Vectara% of documents, higher is better 17 · 31 of 104 measured 99.9% 99.8%
Show all 21 results (10 more)
MeasureQwen3-32BQwen3.5-35B-A3B
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results
Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 159 · 134 of 338 measured 1,398 1,419
Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 198 · 140 of 387 measured 1,331 1,386
Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 217 · 155 of 386 measured 1,308 1,363
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 7 results
Terminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks, higher is better 111 · 72 of 130 measured 5.2%thinking reasoning 40.8%no reasoning
τ-bench banking% of tasks, higher is better 102 · 107 of 121 measured 5.4%thinking reasoning 4.9%no reasoning
Artificial Analysis Coding Indexindex score, higher is better 111 · 79 of 131 measured 15.3thinking reasoning 37.0no reasoning
IFBench% of instructions, higher is better 155 · 39 of 195 measured 36.3%thinking reasoning 72.5%
Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 222 · 99 of 233 measured 0.0%no reasoning 72.0%
Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks, higher is better 169 · 74 of 190 measured 3.0%thinking reasoning 26.5%
τ²-bench telecom% of tasks, higher is better 135 · 45 of 193 measured 29.8%thinking reasoning 89.2%

Quick answers

Is Qwen3-32B better than Qwen3.5-35B-A3B?

Pick Qwen3.5-35B-A3B if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 19.3 against 8.6). Pick Qwen3-32B if cost matters more: it costs 2.2 times less per token.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3-32B or Qwen3.5-35B-A3B?

Qwen3-32B is cheaper: $0.21 against $0.45 per million tokens, 2.2 times less.

Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3-32B or Qwen3.5-35B-A3B?

Qwen3-32B ranks 113 of 164 models on sale for multi-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls, against 116 for Qwen3.5-35B-A3B.

Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Qwen3-32B or Qwen3.5-35B-A3B?

Qwen3.5-35B-A3B ranks 92 of 198 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 148 for Qwen3-32B.

Which is better for writing, Qwen3-32B or Qwen3.5-35B-A3B?

Qwen3.5-35B-A3B ranks 108 of 188 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 139 for Qwen3-32B.

Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3-32B or Qwen3.5-35B-A3B?

Qwen3-32B ranks 22 of 152 models on sale for summarising without inventing things, and factual answers, against 112 for Qwen3.5-35B-A3B.

Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3-32B or Qwen3.5-35B-A3B?

Qwen3.5-35B-A3B: 262,144 tokens, against 131,072 for Qwen3-32B.

Run Qwen3-32B and Qwen3.5-35B-A3B on your own prompt

Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.