Compare / Qwen3.5-35B-A3B vs Qwen3.5-397B-A17B

Qwen3.5-35B-A3B vs Qwen3.5-397B-A17B

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 20 results on 3 sources that measured both models.

AlibabaQwen3.5-35B-A3B Released 24 Feb 2026 · $0.16 in · $1.30 out
AlibabaQwen3.5-397B-A17B Released 13 Feb 2026 · $0.55 in · $3.50 out
Qwen3.5-35B-A3B wins 2Qwen3.5-397B-A17B wins 18

Of the 20 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).

Qwen3.5-35B-A3B or Qwen3.5-397B-A17B? The short answer

Pick Qwen3.5-397B-A17B if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 21.4 against 19.3). Pick Qwen3.5-35B-A3B if cost matters more: it costs 2.9 times less per token.

  • Qwen3.5-35B-A3B is cheaper: $0.45 against $1.29 per million tokens, 2.9 times less.
  • Qwen3.5-397B-A17B scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 21.4 against 19.3.
  • Qwen3.5-35B-A3B is newer: released 24 Feb 2026, against 13 Feb 2026 for Qwen3.5-397B-A17B.
  • On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Qwen3.5-397B-A17B does better for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge, writing and sticking to the facts.

Head to head

19.3
Intelligence Index
21.4
$0.45
Price per million tokens, blendedlower is better
$1.29
262,144
Context window, tokens
262,144

Every fact side by side

Qwen3.5-35B-A3BQwen3.5-397B-A17B
Price per million tokens$0.16 in · $1.30 out$0.55 in · $3.50 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.45$1.29
Cheapest host, blended$0.25 (Darkbloom, FP4)$0.88 (Alibaba)
Intelligence Index19.321.4
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second–90
Context window262,144 tokens262,144 tokens
Released24 Feb 2026 (newer)13 Feb 2026
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 116 of 164 70 of 164
Professional workReal tasks from banking, consulting and law, business documents and freelance projects not measured 48 of 51
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 92 of 198 73 of 198
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 108 of 188 69 of 188
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 112 of 152 75 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.

MeasureQwen3.5-35B-A3BQwen3.5-397B-A17B
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results
Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 147 · 80 of 387 measured 1,394 1,442
Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better 129 · 70 of 163 measured 1,407 1,445
Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 139 · 73 of 380 measured 1,403 1,446
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 108 · 97 of 243 measured 19.3 21.4no reasoning
GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 84 · 53 of 231 measured 84.5% 89.3%
Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 106 · 77 of 242 measured 21.0% 29.0%
UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results
Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 97 · 77 of 230 measured 42.6think-prefill reasoning 50.1no reasoning
Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better 83 · 134 of 230 measured 17.0%no reasoning 23.0%no reasoning
Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better 151 · 164 of 230 measured 0.33no reasoning 0.33no reasoning
Show all 20 results (11 more)
MeasureQwen3.5-35B-A3BQwen3.5-397B-A17B
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 4 results
Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 163 · 86 of 385 measured 1,342 1,405
Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 134 · 67 of 338 measured 1,419 1,477
Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 140 · 78 of 387 measured 1,386 1,434
Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 155 · 80 of 386 measured 1,363 1,421
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 7 results
Terminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks, higher is better 72 · 61 of 130 measured 40.8%no reasoning 51.3%
τ-bench banking% of tasks, higher is better 107 · 64 of 121 measured 4.9%no reasoning 13.4%
Artificial Analysis Coding Indexindex score, higher is better 79 · 61 of 131 measured 37.0no reasoning 48.2
IFBench% of instructions, higher is better 39 · 8 of 195 measured 72.5% 78.8%
Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 99 · 66 of 233 measured 72.0% 77.3%
Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks, higher is better 74 · 34 of 190 measured 26.5% 40.9%
τ²-bench telecom% of tasks, higher is better 45 · 16 of 193 measured 89.2% 95.6%

Quick answers

Is Qwen3.5-35B-A3B better than Qwen3.5-397B-A17B?

Pick Qwen3.5-397B-A17B if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 21.4 against 19.3). Pick Qwen3.5-35B-A3B if cost matters more: it costs 2.9 times less per token.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.5-35B-A3B or Qwen3.5-397B-A17B?

Qwen3.5-35B-A3B is cheaper: $0.45 against $1.29 per million tokens, 2.9 times less.

Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3.5-35B-A3B or Qwen3.5-397B-A17B?

Qwen3.5-397B-A17B ranks 70 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, Qwen3.5-35B-A3B or Qwen3.5-397B-A17B?

Qwen3.5-397B-A17B ranks 73 of 198 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 92 for Qwen3.5-35B-A3B.

Which is better for writing, Qwen3.5-35B-A3B or Qwen3.5-397B-A17B?

Qwen3.5-397B-A17B ranks 69 of 188 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 108 for Qwen3.5-35B-A3B.

Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3.5-35B-A3B or Qwen3.5-397B-A17B?

Qwen3.5-397B-A17B ranks 75 of 152 models on sale for summarising without inventing things, and factual answers, against 112 for Qwen3.5-35B-A3B.

Run Qwen3.5-35B-A3B and Qwen3.5-397B-A17B on your own prompt

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