Compare / Qwen3.5-27B vs Qwen3-Max
Qwen3.5-27B vs Qwen3-Max
Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 17 results on 4 sources that measured both models.
Of the 17 results both models have, the better value on each. Results whose reported ranges overlap are too close to call.
Results as of 13 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-13-2e2420e3c5cc).
Qwen3.5-27B or Qwen3-Max? The short answer
Pick Qwen3.5-27B: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 22.9 against 15.6) and costs less.
- Qwen3.5-27B is cheaper: $0.74 against $1.56 per million tokens, 2.1 times less.
- Qwen3.5-27B scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 22.9 against 15.6.
- Qwen3.5-27B is newer: released 24 Feb 2026, against 24 Sep 2025 for Qwen3-Max.
- On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Qwen3.5-27B does better for agents and tool use and reasoning and knowledge.
Head to head
Every fact side by side
| Qwen3.5-27B | Qwen3-Max | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per million tokens | $0.27 in · $2.16 out | $0.78 in · $3.90 out |
| Blended (3 in : 1 out) | $0.74 | $1.56 |
| Cheapest host, blended | $0.54 (Alibaba) | – |
| Intelligence Index | 22.9 | 15.6 |
| Spring Prompt overall | – | – |
| Output speed, tokens a second | – | – |
| Context window | 262,144 tokens | 262,144 tokens |
| Released | 24 Feb 2026 (newer) | 24 Sep 2025 |
| Weights | Open | Closed |
| 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 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.
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.
| Measure | Qwen3.5-27B | Qwen3-Max |
|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results | ||
| Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 129 · 108 of 387 measured | 1,409 | 1,423 |
| Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 128 · 110 of 380 measured | 1,408 | 1,419 |
| Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 145 · 105 of 385 measured | 1,358 | 1,393 |
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results | ||
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 86 · 123 of 243 measured | 22.9 | 15.6 |
| GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 74 · 132 of 231 measured | 85.8% | 76.4% |
| Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 95 · 140 of 242 measured | 23.9% | 11.9% |
| UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results | ||
| Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 99 · 115 of 230 measured | 42.4think-prefill reasoning | 38.6 |
| Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better 49 · 134 of 230 measured | 11.0%think-prefill reasoning | 23.0% |
| Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better 147 · 155 of 230 measured | 0.33no reasoning | 0.33 |
| Vending-Bench 2 reported by Vending-Bench 2 · 1 result | ||
| Money after a yearUS dollars, higher is better 50 · 52 of 58 measured | $201.98 | $71.57 |
Show all 17 results (7 more)
| Measure | Qwen3.5-27B | Qwen3-Max |
|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results | ||
| Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 112 · 137 of 338 measured | 1,441 | 1,417 |
| Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 122 · 106 of 387 measured | 1,401 | 1,413 |
| Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 135 · 101 of 386 measured | 1,380 | 1,405 |
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 4 results | ||
| IFBench% of instructions, higher is better 24 · 118 of 195 measured | 75.6% | 44.2% |
| Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 63 · 154 of 233 measured | 77.7% | 50.0% |
| Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks, higher is better 61 · 91 of 190 measured | 32.6% | 20.5% |
| τ²-bench telecom% of tasks, higher is better 28 · 79 of 193 measured | 93.9% | 74.3% |
Quick answers
Is Qwen3.5-27B better than Qwen3-Max?
Pick Qwen3.5-27B: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 22.9 against 15.6) and costs less.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3.5-27B or Qwen3-Max?
Qwen3.5-27B is cheaper: $0.74 against $1.56 per million tokens, 2.1 times less.
Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3.5-27B or Qwen3-Max?
Qwen3.5-27B ranks 145 of 164 models on sale for multi-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls, against 154 for Qwen3-Max.
Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Qwen3.5-27B or Qwen3-Max?
Qwen3.5-27B ranks 82 of 198 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 121 for Qwen3-Max.
Which is better for writing, Qwen3.5-27B or Qwen3-Max?
Qwen3.5-27B ranks 98 of 188 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 99 for Qwen3-Max.
Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3.5-27B or Qwen3-Max?
Qwen3-Max ranks 50 of 152 models on sale for summarising without inventing things, and factual answers, against 121 for Qwen3.5-27B.
Run Qwen3.5-27B and Qwen3-Max on your own prompt
Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.