Compare / Qwen3.5-35B-A3B vs Gemma 4 26B A4B

Qwen3.5-35B-A3B vs Gemma 4 26B A4B

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 22 results on 4 sources that measured both models.

AlibabaQwen3.5-35B-A3B Released 24 Feb 2026 · $0.16 in · $1.30 out
GoogleGemma 4 26B A4B Released 2 Apr 2026 · $0.10 in · $0.30 out
Qwen3.5-35B-A3B wins 81 too close to callGemma 4 26B A4B wins 13

Of the 22 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). See also Alibaba vs Google, every model from both labs.

Qwen3.5-35B-A3B or Gemma 4 26B A4B? The short answer

Pick Qwen3.5-35B-A3B if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 19.3 against 16.7). Pick Gemma 4 26B A4B if cost matters more: it costs 3.0 times less per token.

  • Gemma 4 26B A4B is cheaper: $0.15 against $0.45 per million tokens, 3.0 times less.
  • Qwen3.5-35B-A3B scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 19.3 against 16.7.
  • Gemma 4 26B A4B is newer: released 2 Apr 2026, against 24 Feb 2026 for Qwen3.5-35B-A3B.
  • On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B does better for reasoning and knowledge; Gemma 4 26B A4B for writing and sticking to the facts.

Head to head

19.3
Intelligence Index
16.7
$0.45
Price per million tokens, blendedlower is better
$0.15
262,144
Context window, tokens
262,144

Every fact side by side

Qwen3.5-35B-A3BGemma 4 26B A4B
Price per million tokens$0.16 in · $1.30 out$0.10 in · $0.30 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.45$0.15
Cheapest host, blended$0.25 (Darkbloom, FP4)$0.086 (Darkbloom)
Intelligence Index19.316.7
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second–91
Context window262,144 tokens262,144 tokens
Released24 Feb 20262 Apr 2026 (newer)
WeightsOpenOpen
Developer based inChinathe US

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 94 of 164
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 92 of 198 104 of 198
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 108 of 188 83 of 188
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 112 of 152 41 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-A3BGemma 4 26B A4B
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results
Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 147 · 87 of 387 measured 1,394 1,437
Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better 129 · 71 of 163 measured 1,407 1,445
Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 139 · 78 of 380 measured 1,403 1,444
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 108 · 117 of 243 measured 19.3 16.7
GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 84 · 112 of 231 measured 84.5% 79.2%
Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 106 · 111 of 242 measured 21.0% 19.3%
UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results
Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 97 · 92 of 230 measured 42.6think-prefill reasoning 43.8channel-thought-prefill reasoning
Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better 83 · 25 of 230 measured 17.0%no reasoning 8.0%
Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better 151 · 93 of 230 measured 0.33no reasoning 0.35channel-thought-prefill reasoning
Vectara Hallucination Leaderboard reported by Vectara Hallucination Leaderboard · 2 results
Hallucination rate · Vectara% of summaries, lower is better 62 · 13 of 104 measured 10.5% 5.2%
Answer rate · Vectara% of documents, higher is better 31 · 31 of 104 measured 99.8% 99.8%
Show all 22 results (11 more)
MeasureQwen3.5-35B-A3BGemma 4 26B A4B
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 4 results
Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 163 · 96 of 385 measured 1,342 1,400
Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 134 · 71 of 338 measured 1,419 1,475
Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 140 · 71 of 387 measured 1,386 1,437
Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 155 · 97 of 386 measured 1,363 1,406
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 7 results
Terminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks, higher is better 72 · 74 of 130 measured 40.8%no reasoning 39.0%
τ-bench banking% of tasks, higher is better 107 · 70 of 121 measured 4.9%no reasoning 12.0%
Artificial Analysis Coding Indexindex score, higher is better 79 · 75 of 131 measured 37.0no reasoning 39.3
IFBench% of instructions, higher is better 39 · 40 of 195 measured 72.5% 72.4%
Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 99 · 123 of 233 measured 72.0% 65.7%
Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks, higher is better 74 · 78 of 190 measured 26.5% 25.0%no reasoning
τ²-bench telecom% of tasks, higher is better 45 · 110 of 193 measured 89.2% 43.6%

Quick answers

Is Qwen3.5-35B-A3B better than Gemma 4 26B A4B?

Pick Qwen3.5-35B-A3B if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 19.3 against 16.7). Pick Gemma 4 26B A4B if cost matters more: it costs 3.0 times less per token.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.5-35B-A3B or Gemma 4 26B A4B?

Gemma 4 26B A4B is cheaper: $0.15 against $0.45 per million tokens, 3.0 times less.

Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3.5-35B-A3B or Gemma 4 26B A4B?

Gemma 4 26B A4B ranks 94 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 Gemma 4 26B A4B?

Qwen3.5-35B-A3B ranks 92 of 198 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 104 for Gemma 4 26B A4B.

Which is better for writing, Qwen3.5-35B-A3B or Gemma 4 26B A4B?

Gemma 4 26B A4B ranks 83 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 Gemma 4 26B A4B?

Gemma 4 26B A4B ranks 41 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 Gemma 4 26B A4B on your own prompt

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