Compare / Qwen3.5-35B-A3B vs GLM-4.5

Qwen3.5-35B-A3B vs GLM-4.5

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 16 results on 3 sources that measured both models.

AlibabaQwen3.5-35B-A3B Released 24 Feb 2026 · $0.16 in · $1.30 out
Z.aiGLM-4.5 Released 3 Aug 2025 · $0.60 in · $2.20 out
Qwen3.5-35B-A3B wins 72 too close to callGLM-4.5 wins 7

Of the 16 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 Z.ai, every model from both labs.

Qwen3.5-35B-A3B or GLM-4.5? The short answer

Pick Qwen3.5-35B-A3B: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 19.3 against 12.8) and costs less.

  • Qwen3.5-35B-A3B is cheaper: $0.45 against $1.00 per million tokens, 2.2 times less.
  • Qwen3.5-35B-A3B scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 19.3 against 12.8.
  • Qwen3.5-35B-A3B is newer: released 24 Feb 2026, against 3 Aug 2025 for GLM-4.5.
  • On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B does better for reasoning and knowledge; GLM-4.5 for writing.

Head to head

19.3
Intelligence Index
12.8
$0.45
Price per million tokens, blendedlower is better
$1.00
262,144
Context window, tokens
131,072

Every fact side by side

Qwen3.5-35B-A3BGLM-4.5
Price per million tokens$0.16 in · $1.30 out$0.60 in · $2.20 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.45$1.00
Cheapest host, blended$0.25 (Darkbloom, FP4)–
Intelligence Index19.312.8
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second––
Context window262,144 tokens131,072 tokens
Released24 Feb 2026 (newer)3 Aug 2025
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 not measured
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 92 of 198 120 of 198
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 108 of 188 76 of 188
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 112 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. 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-A3BGLM-4.5
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results
Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 147 · 125 of 387 measured 1,394 1,411
Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 139 · 121 of 380 measured 1,403 1,412
Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 163 · 130 of 385 measured 1,342 1,372
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 108 · 145 of 243 measured 19.3 12.8
GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 84 · 118 of 231 measured 84.5% 78.2%
Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 106 · 134 of 242 measured 21.0% 13.0%
UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results
Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 97 · 53 of 230 measured 42.6think-prefill reasoning 57.3thinking reasoning
Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better 83 · 57 of 230 measured 17.0%no reasoning 13.0%no reasoning
Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better 151 · 73 of 230 measured 0.33no reasoning 0.36thinking reasoning
Show all 16 results (7 more)
MeasureQwen3.5-35B-A3BGLM-4.5
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results
Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 134 · 107 of 338 measured 1,419 1,444
Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 140 · 117 of 387 measured 1,386 1,405
Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 155 · 132 of 386 measured 1,363 1,382
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 4 results
IFBench% of instructions, higher is better 39 · 119 of 195 measured 72.5% 44.1%
Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 99 · 150 of 233 measured 72.0% 52.7%
Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks, higher is better 74 · 87 of 190 measured 26.5% 22.0%
τ²-bench telecom% of tasks, higher is better 45 · 112 of 193 measured 89.2% 43.0%

Quick answers

Is Qwen3.5-35B-A3B better than GLM-4.5?

Pick Qwen3.5-35B-A3B: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 19.3 against 12.8) and costs less.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.5-35B-A3B or GLM-4.5?

Qwen3.5-35B-A3B is cheaper: $0.45 against $1.00 per million tokens, 2.2 times less.

Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Qwen3.5-35B-A3B or GLM-4.5?

Qwen3.5-35B-A3B ranks 92 of 198 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 120 for GLM-4.5.

Which is better for writing, Qwen3.5-35B-A3B or GLM-4.5?

GLM-4.5 ranks 76 of 188 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 108 for Qwen3.5-35B-A3B.

Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3.5-35B-A3B or GLM-4.5?

Qwen3.5-35B-A3B: 262,144 tokens, against 131,072 for GLM-4.5.

Run Qwen3.5-35B-A3B and GLM-4.5 on your own prompt

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