Compare / Qwen3.5-35B-A3B vs GPT-5.6 Terra

Qwen3.5-35B-A3B vs GPT-5.6 Terra

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
OpenAIGPT-5.6 Terra Released 9 Jul 2026 · $2.00 in · $12.00 out
Qwen3.5-35B-A3B wins 3GPT-5.6 Terra wins 17

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). See also Alibaba vs OpenAI, every model from both labs.

Qwen3.5-35B-A3B or GPT-5.6 Terra? The short answer

Pick GPT-5.6 Terra if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 42.1 against 19.3). Pick Qwen3.5-35B-A3B if cost matters more: it costs 10 times less per token.

  • Qwen3.5-35B-A3B is cheaper: $0.45 against $4.50 per million tokens, 10 times less.
  • GPT-5.6 Terra scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 42.1 against 19.3.
  • GPT-5.6 Terra is newer: released 9 Jul 2026, against 24 Feb 2026 for Qwen3.5-35B-A3B.
  • On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: GPT-5.6 Terra does better for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge, writing and sticking to the facts.

Head to head

19.3
Intelligence Index
42.1
$0.45
Price per million tokens, blendedlower is better
$4.50
262,144
Context window, tokens
1,050,000

Every fact side by side

Qwen3.5-35B-A3BGPT-5.6 Terra
Price per million tokens$0.16 in · $1.30 out$2.00 in · $12.00 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.45$4.50
Cheapest host, blended$0.25 (Darkbloom, FP4)$4.50 (Azure)
Cached input, per million–$0.20 cached input
Intelligence Index19.342.1
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second–99
Context window262,144 tokens1,050,000 tokens
Released24 Feb 20269 Jul 2026 (newer)
WeightsOpenClosed
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 16 of 164
Professional workReal tasks from banking, consulting and law, business documents and freelance projects not measured 10 of 51
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 92 of 198 21 of 198
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 108 of 188 39 of 188
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 112 of 152 51 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-A3BGPT-5.6 Terra
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results
Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 147 · 44 of 387 measured 1,394 1,465xhigh reasoning
Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better 129 · 30 of 163 measured 1,407 1,466xhigh reasoning
Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 139 · 38 of 380 measured 1,403 1,467xhigh reasoning
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 108 · 19 of 243 measured 19.3 42.1max reasoning
GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 84 · 20 of 231 measured 84.5% 92.5%max reasoning
Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 106 · 27 of 242 measured 21.0% 42.9%max reasoning
UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results
Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 97 · 44 of 230 measured 42.6think-prefill reasoning 60.4high reasoning
Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better 83 · 129 of 230 measured 17.0%no reasoning 22.0%xhigh reasoning
Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better 151 · 18 of 230 measured 0.33no reasoning 0.39xhigh reasoning
Show all 20 results (11 more)
MeasureQwen3.5-35B-A3BGPT-5.6 Terra
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 4 results
Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 163 · 65 of 385 measured 1,342 1,426xhigh reasoning
Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 134 · 30 of 338 measured 1,419 1,504xhigh reasoning
Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 140 · 39 of 387 measured 1,386 1,461xhigh reasoning
Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 155 · 54 of 386 measured 1,363 1,445xhigh reasoning
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 7 results
Terminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks, higher is better 72 · 7 of 130 measured 40.8%no reasoning 88.0%max reasoning
τ-bench banking% of tasks, higher is better 107 · 18 of 121 measured 4.9%no reasoning 40.2%max reasoning
Artificial Analysis Coding Indexindex score, higher is better 79 · 6 of 131 measured 37.0no reasoning 76.7max reasoning
IFBench% of instructions, higher is better 39 · 47 of 195 measured 72.5% 71.2%max reasoning
Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 99 · 15 of 233 measured 72.0% 83.0%max reasoning
Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks, higher is better 74 · 2 of 190 measured 26.5% 62.9%xhigh reasoning
τ²-bench telecom% of tasks, higher is better 45 · 55 of 193 measured 89.2% 86.3%max reasoning

Quick answers

Is Qwen3.5-35B-A3B better than GPT-5.6 Terra?

Pick GPT-5.6 Terra if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 42.1 against 19.3). Pick Qwen3.5-35B-A3B if cost matters more: it costs 10 times less per token.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.5-35B-A3B or GPT-5.6 Terra?

Qwen3.5-35B-A3B is cheaper: $0.45 against $4.50 per million tokens, 10 times less.

Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3.5-35B-A3B or GPT-5.6 Terra?

GPT-5.6 Terra ranks 16 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 GPT-5.6 Terra?

GPT-5.6 Terra ranks 21 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 GPT-5.6 Terra?

GPT-5.6 Terra ranks 39 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 GPT-5.6 Terra?

GPT-5.6 Terra ranks 51 of 152 models on sale for summarising without inventing things, and factual answers, against 112 for Qwen3.5-35B-A3B.

Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3.5-35B-A3B or GPT-5.6 Terra?

GPT-5.6 Terra: 1,050,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3.5-35B-A3B.

Run Qwen3.5-35B-A3B and GPT-5.6 Terra on your own prompt

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