Compare / Qwen3.5-27B vs Qwen3.6-27B
Qwen3.5-27B vs Qwen3.6-27B
Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 10 results on 2 sources that measured both models.
Results as of 8 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-08-4199ce0620fe).
Qwen3.5-27B or Qwen3.6-27B? The short answer
Qwen3.6-27B is the newer version; they score about the same, so pick Qwen3.5-27B, which costs less (28% less per token).
- Qwen3.5-27B is cheaper: $0.74 against $1.02 per million tokens, 28% less.
- Qwen3.5-27B scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 22.9 against 21.4.
- Qwen3.6-27B is newer: released 22 Apr 2026, against 24 Feb 2026 for Qwen3.5-27B.
- On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Qwen3.5-27B does better for reasoning and knowledge; Qwen3.6-27B for writing.
At a glance
| Qwen3.5-27B | Qwen3.6-27B | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per million tokens | $0.27 in · $2.16 out | $0.30 in · $3.20 out |
| Blended (3 in : 1 out) | $0.74 | $1.02 |
| Cheapest host, blended | $0.54 (Alibaba) | $0.72 (Chutes, FP8) |
| Intelligence Index | 22.9 | 21.4 |
| Spring Prompt overall | – | – |
| Output speed, tokens a second | – | – |
| Context window | 262,144 tokens | 262,144 tokens |
| Released | 24 Feb 2026 | 22 Apr 2026 (newer) |
| 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 | Qwen3.5-27B | Qwen3.6-27B |
|---|---|---|
| Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls | 145 of 164 | 84 of 164 |
| Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge | 82 of 198 | 88 of 198 |
| WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality | 98 of 188 | 96 of 188 |
| Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers | 121 of 152 | not measured |
Every shared result
Each model's best result on every measure both have, grouped by benchmark, with the setting that produced it. 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.
| Measure | Qwen3.5-27B | Qwen3.6-27B |
|---|---|---|
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results | ||
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better | 22.9 | 21.4 |
| GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better | 85.8% | 84.2% |
| Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better | 23.9% | 23.1% |
| UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results | ||
| Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better | 42.4think-prefill reasoning | 42.5think-prefill reasoning |
| Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better | 11.0%think-prefill reasoning | 9.0%no reasoning |
| Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better | 0.33no reasoning | 0.35no reasoning |
Show all 10 results (4 more)
| Measure | Qwen3.5-27B | Qwen3.6-27B |
|---|---|---|
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 4 results | ||
| IFBench% of instructions, higher is better | 75.6% | 67.6% |
| Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better | 77.7% | 77.3% |
| Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks, higher is better | 32.6% | 34.8% |
| τ²-bench telecom% of tasks, higher is better | 93.9% | 94.2% |
Quick answers
Is Qwen3.5-27B better than Qwen3.6-27B?
Qwen3.6-27B is the newer version; they score about the same, so pick Qwen3.5-27B, which costs less (28% less per token).
Which is cheaper, Qwen3.5-27B or Qwen3.6-27B?
Qwen3.5-27B is cheaper: $0.74 against $1.02 per million tokens, 28% less.
Run Qwen3.5-27B and Qwen3.6-27B on your own prompt
Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.