Compare / Qwen3.5-35B-A3B vs GLM-4.6

Qwen3.5-35B-A3B vs GLM-4.6

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
Z.aiGLM-4.6 Released 30 Sep 2025 · $0.50 in · $2.00 out
Qwen3.5-35B-A3B wins 72 too close to callGLM-4.6 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 Z.ai, every model from both labs.

Qwen3.5-35B-A3B or GLM-4.6? The short answer

They score about the same, so pick Qwen3.5-35B-A3B: it costs 49% less per token.

  • Qwen3.5-35B-A3B is cheaper: $0.45 against $0.88 per million tokens, 49% less.
  • They score about the same on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (19.3 and 18.5).
  • Qwen3.5-35B-A3B is newer: released 24 Feb 2026, against 30 Sep 2025 for GLM-4.6.
  • On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B does better for reasoning and knowledge; GLM-4.6 for agents and tool use, writing and sticking to the facts.

Head to head

19.3
Intelligence Index
18.5
$0.45
Price per million tokens, blendedlower is better
$0.88
262,144
Context window, tokens
204,800

Every fact side by side

Qwen3.5-35B-A3BGLM-4.6
Price per million tokens$0.16 in · $1.30 out$0.50 in · $2.00 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.45$0.88
Cheapest host, blended$0.25 (Darkbloom, FP4)$0.76 (Venice, FP4)
Intelligence Index19.318.5
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second––
Context window262,144 tokens204,800 tokens
Released24 Feb 2026 (newer)30 Sep 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 55 of 164
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 92 of 198 108 of 198
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 108 of 188 79 of 188
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 112 of 152 70 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-A3BGLM-4.6
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results
Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 147 · 107 of 387 measured 1,394 1,424
Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better 129 · 65 of 163 measured 1,407 1,447
Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 139 · 120 of 380 measured 1,403 1,412
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 108 · 111 of 243 measured 19.3 18.5thinking reasoning
GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 84 · 120 of 231 measured 84.5% 78.0%thinking reasoning
Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 106 · 129 of 242 measured 21.0% 14.5%thinking reasoning
UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results
Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 97 · 70 of 230 measured 42.6think-prefill reasoning 53.3thinking reasoning
Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better 83 · 57 of 230 measured 17.0%no reasoning 13.0%thinking reasoning
Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better 151 · 31 of 230 measured 0.33no reasoning 0.38thinking reasoning
Vectara Hallucination Leaderboard reported by Vectara Hallucination Leaderboard · 2 results
Hallucination rate · Vectara% of summaries, lower is better 62 · 53 of 104 measured 10.5% 9.5%
Answer rate · Vectara% of documents, higher is better 31 · 89 of 104 measured 99.8% 94.5%
Show all 22 results (11 more)
MeasureQwen3.5-35B-A3BGLM-4.6
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 4 results
Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 163 · 94 of 385 measured 1,342 1,400
Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 134 · 115 of 338 measured 1,419 1,439
Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 140 · 108 of 387 measured 1,386 1,412
Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 155 · 102 of 386 measured 1,363 1,405
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 7 results
Terminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks, higher is better 72 · 63 of 130 measured 40.8%no reasoning 49.4%thinking reasoning
τ-bench banking% of tasks, higher is better 107 · 64 of 121 measured 4.9%no reasoning 13.4%thinking reasoning
Artificial Analysis Coding Indexindex score, higher is better 79 · 64 of 131 measured 37.0no reasoning 45.8thinking reasoning
IFBench% of instructions, higher is better 39 · 120 of 195 measured 72.5% 43.4%thinking reasoning
Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 99 · 145 of 233 measured 72.0% 54.0%thinking reasoning
Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks, higher is better 74 · 69 of 190 measured 26.5% 28.8%no reasoning
τ²-bench telecom% of tasks, higher is better 45 · 74 of 193 measured 89.2% 76.9%no reasoning

Quick answers

Is Qwen3.5-35B-A3B better than GLM-4.6?

They score about the same, so pick Qwen3.5-35B-A3B: it costs 49% less per token.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.5-35B-A3B or GLM-4.6?

Qwen3.5-35B-A3B is cheaper: $0.45 against $0.88 per million tokens, 49% less.

Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3.5-35B-A3B or GLM-4.6?

GLM-4.6 ranks 55 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 GLM-4.6?

Qwen3.5-35B-A3B ranks 92 of 198 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 108 for GLM-4.6.

Which is better for writing, Qwen3.5-35B-A3B or GLM-4.6?

GLM-4.6 ranks 79 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 GLM-4.6?

GLM-4.6 ranks 70 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 GLM-4.6?

Qwen3.5-35B-A3B: 262,144 tokens, against 204,800 for GLM-4.6.

Run Qwen3.5-35B-A3B and GLM-4.6 on your own prompt

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