Compare / Qwen3.5-397B-A17B vs Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct

Qwen3.5-397B-A17B vs Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 17 results on 3 sources that measured both models.

AlibabaQwen3.5-397B-A17B Released 13 Feb 2026 · $0.55 in · $3.50 out
AlibabaQwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct Released 23 Sep 2025 · $0.30 in · $1.50 out
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B wins 141 too close to callQwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct wins 2

Of the 17 results both models have, the better value on each. Results whose reported ranges overlap are too close to call.

Results as of 14 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-14-7d7cf32c3f6d).

Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct? The short answer

Pick Qwen3.5-397B-A17B if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 21.4 against 9.9). Pick Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct if cost matters more: it costs 2.1 times less per token.

  • Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct is cheaper: $0.60 against $1.29 per million tokens, 2.1 times less.
  • Qwen3.5-397B-A17B scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 21.4 against 9.9.
  • Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is newer: released 13 Feb 2026, against 23 Sep 2025 for Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct.
  • On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Qwen3.5-397B-A17B does better for reasoning and knowledge, writing and sticking to the facts.

Head to head

21.4
Intelligence Index
9.9
$1.29
Price per million tokens, blendedlower is better
$0.60
262,144
Context window, tokens
262,144

Every fact side by side

Qwen3.5-397B-A17BQwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct
Price per million tokens$0.55 in · $3.50 out$0.30 in · $1.50 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$1.29$0.60
Cheapest host, blended$0.88 (Alibaba)$0.37 (DeepInfra, FP8)
Intelligence Index21.49.9
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second57–
Context window262,144 tokens262,144 tokens
Released13 Feb 2026 (newer)23 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 71 of 166 not measured
Professional workReal tasks from banking, consulting and law, business documents and freelance projects 48 of 51 not measured
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 75 of 200 148 of 200
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 70 of 189 94 of 189
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 76 of 153 127 of 153

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.

MeasureQwen3.5-397B-A17BQwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results
Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 80 · 122 of 387 measured 1,442 1,413
Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better 70 · 122 of 163 measured 1,445 1,415
Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 73 · 88 of 380 measured 1,446 1,440
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 98 · 173 of 244 measured 21.4no reasoning 9.9
GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 53 · 152 of 231 measured 89.3% 71.2%
Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 78 · 177 of 243 measured 29.0% 6.6%
UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results
Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 77 · 96 of 230 measured 50.1no reasoning 43.0
Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better 134 · 99 of 230 measured 23.0%no reasoning 19.0%
Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better 164 · 86 of 230 measured 0.33no reasoning 0.36
Show all 17 results (8 more)
MeasureQwen3.5-397B-A17BQwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 4 results
Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 86 · 146 of 385 measured 1,405 1,358
Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 67 · 113 of 338 measured 1,477 1,440
Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 78 · 111 of 387 measured 1,434 1,409
Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 80 · 124 of 386 measured 1,421 1,387
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 4 results
IFBench% of instructions, higher is better 8 · 125 of 195 measured 78.8% 42.7%
Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 67 · 180 of 234 measured 77.3% 32.7%
Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks, higher is better 34 · 140 of 190 measured 40.9% 6.8%
τ²-bench telecom% of tasks, higher is better 16 · 122 of 193 measured 95.6% 35.1%

Quick answers

Is Qwen3.5-397B-A17B better than Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct?

Pick Qwen3.5-397B-A17B if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 21.4 against 9.9). Pick Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct if cost matters more: it costs 2.1 times less per token.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct?

Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct is cheaper: $0.60 against $1.29 per million tokens, 2.1 times less.

Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct?

Qwen3.5-397B-A17B ranks 75 of 200 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 148 for Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct.

Which is better for writing, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct?

Qwen3.5-397B-A17B ranks 70 of 189 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 94 for Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct.

Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct?

Qwen3.5-397B-A17B ranks 76 of 153 models on sale for summarising without inventing things, and factual answers, against 127 for Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct.

Run Qwen3.5-397B-A17B and Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct on your own prompt

Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.

Try the playgroundTalk to us