Compare / Qwen3.5-27B vs Qwen3.5-Flash

Qwen3.5-27B vs Qwen3.5-Flash

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 10 results on 3 sources that measured both models.

AlibabaQwen3.5-27B Released 24 Feb 2026 · $0.27 in · $2.16 out
AlibabaQwen3.5-Flash $0.065 in · $0.26 out
Qwen3.5-27B wins 44 too close to callQwen3.5-Flash wins 2

Of the 10 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).

Qwen3.5-27B or Qwen3.5-Flash? The short answer

They score about the same, so pick Qwen3.5-Flash: it costs 6.5 times less per token.

  • Qwen3.5-Flash is cheaper: $0.11 against $0.74 per million tokens, 6.5 times less.
  • On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Qwen3.5-27B does better for writing; Qwen3.5-Flash for agents and tool use and sticking to the facts.

Head to head

$0.74
Price per million tokens, blendedlower is better
$0.11
262,144
Context window, tokens
1,000,000

Every fact side by side

Qwen3.5-27BQwen3.5-Flash
Price per million tokens$0.27 in · $2.16 out$0.065 in · $0.26 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.74$0.11
Cheapest host, blended$0.54 (Alibaba)–
Intelligence Index22.9–
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second––
Context window262,144 tokens1,000,000 tokens
Released24 Feb 2026–
WeightsOpenClosed
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 145 of 164 143 of 164
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 82 of 198 not measured
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 98 of 188 115 of 188
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 121 of 152 119 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.

MeasureQwen3.5-27BQwen3.5-Flash
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results
Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 129 · 142 of 387 measured 1,409 1,396
Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better 112 · 123 of 163 measured 1,420 1,414
Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 128 · 137 of 380 measured 1,408 1,403
Vectara Hallucination Leaderboard reported by Vectara Hallucination Leaderboard · 2 results
Hallucination rate · Vectara% of summaries, lower is better 80 · 62 of 104 measured 12.1% 10.5%
Answer rate · Vectara% of documents, higher is better 31 · 31 of 104 measured 99.8% 99.8%
Vending-Bench 2 reported by Vending-Bench 2 · 1 result
Money after a yearUS dollars, higher is better 50 · 48 of 58 measured $201.98 $462.69
Show all 10 results (4 more)
MeasureQwen3.5-27BQwen3.5-Flash
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 4 results
Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 145 · 167 of 385 measured 1,358 1,337
Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 112 · 135 of 338 measured 1,441 1,419
Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 122 · 148 of 387 measured 1,401 1,381
Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 135 · 149 of 386 measured 1,380 1,367

Quick answers

Is Qwen3.5-27B better than Qwen3.5-Flash?

They score about the same, so pick Qwen3.5-Flash: it costs 6.5 times less per token.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.5-27B or Qwen3.5-Flash?

Qwen3.5-Flash is cheaper: $0.11 against $0.74 per million tokens, 6.5 times less.

Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3.5-27B or Qwen3.5-Flash?

Qwen3.5-Flash ranks 143 of 164 models on sale for multi-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls, against 145 for Qwen3.5-27B.

Which is better for writing, Qwen3.5-27B or Qwen3.5-Flash?

Qwen3.5-27B ranks 98 of 188 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 115 for Qwen3.5-Flash.

Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3.5-27B or Qwen3.5-Flash?

Qwen3.5-Flash ranks 119 of 152 models on sale for summarising without inventing things, and factual answers, against 121 for Qwen3.5-27B.

Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3.5-27B or Qwen3.5-Flash?

Qwen3.5-Flash: 1,000,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3.5-27B.

Run Qwen3.5-27B and Qwen3.5-Flash on your own prompt

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