Compare / Qwen3.5-397B-A17B vs Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Thinking
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B vs Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Thinking
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.
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).
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Thinking? The short answer
Pick Qwen3.5-397B-A17B: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 21.4 against 13.4) at about the same price.
- They cost about the same: $1.29 and $1.30 per million tokens (three input to one output).
- Qwen3.5-397B-A17B scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 21.4 against 13.4.
- Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is newer: released 13 Feb 2026, against 23 Sep 2025 for Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Thinking.
- On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Qwen3.5-397B-A17B does better for reasoning and knowledge and writing.
Head to head
Every fact side by side
| Qwen3.5-397B-A17B | Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Thinking | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per million tokens | $0.55 in · $3.50 out | $0.40 in · $4.00 out |
| Blended (3 in : 1 out) | $1.29 | $1.30 |
| Cheapest host, blended | $0.88 (Alibaba) | $1.30 (Alibaba) |
| Intelligence Index | 21.4 | 13.4 |
| Spring Prompt overall | – | – |
| Output speed, tokens a second | 90 | – |
| Context window | 262,144 tokens | 131,072 tokens |
| Released | 13 Feb 2026 (newer) | 23 Sep 2025 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Developer based in | China | China |
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.
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.
| Measure | Qwen3.5-397B-A17B | Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Thinking |
|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results | ||
| Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 80 · 144 of 387 measured | 1,442 | 1,395 |
| Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 73 · 147 of 380 measured | 1,446 | 1,392 |
| Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 86 · 165 of 385 measured | 1,405 | 1,340 |
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results | ||
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 97 · 138 of 243 measured | 21.4no reasoning | 13.4 |
| GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 53 · 126 of 231 measured | 89.3% | 77.2% |
| Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 77 · 140 of 242 measured | 29.0% | 11.9% |
| UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results | ||
| Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 77 · 140 of 230 measured | 50.1no reasoning | 32.3 |
| Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better 134 · 166 of 230 measured | 23.0%no reasoning | 30.0% |
| Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better 164 · 122 of 230 measured | 0.33no reasoning | 0.34 |
Show all 16 results (7 more)
| Measure | Qwen3.5-397B-A17B | Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Thinking |
|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results | ||
| Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 67 · 114 of 338 measured | 1,477 | 1,439 |
| Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 78 · 145 of 387 measured | 1,434 | 1,382 |
| Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 80 · 152 of 386 measured | 1,421 | 1,366 |
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 4 results | ||
| IFBench% of instructions, higher is better 8 · 88 of 195 measured | 78.8% | 56.5% |
| Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 66 · 131 of 233 measured | 77.3% | 63.7% |
| Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks, higher is better 34 · 125 of 190 measured | 40.9% | 11.4% |
| τ²-bench telecom% of tasks, higher is better 16 · 99 of 193 measured | 95.6% | 54.1% |
Quick answers
Is Qwen3.5-397B-A17B better than Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Thinking?
Pick Qwen3.5-397B-A17B: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 21.4 against 13.4) at about the same price.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Thinking?
They cost about the same: $1.29 and $1.30 per million tokens (three input to one output).
Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Thinking?
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B ranks 73 of 198 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 123 for Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Thinking.
Which is better for writing, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Thinking?
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B ranks 69 of 188 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 127 for Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Thinking.
Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Thinking?
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B: 262,144 tokens, against 131,072 for Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Thinking.
Run Qwen3.5-397B-A17B and Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Thinking on your own prompt
Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.