Compare / Qwen3.5-397B-A17B vs Gemini 3 Pro Preview

Qwen3.5-397B-A17B vs Gemini 3 Pro Preview

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 23 results on 4 sources that measured both models.

AlibabaQwen3.5-397B-A17B Released 13 Feb 2026 · $0.55 in · $3.50 out
GoogleGemini 3 Pro Preview Released 18 Nov 2025 · Not on sale
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B wins 10Gemini 3 Pro Preview wins 13

Of the 23 results both models have, the better value on each. Results whose reported ranges overlap are too close to call.

Results as of 20 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-20-96eb40c3ec63). See also Alibaba vs Google, every model from both labs.

Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or Gemini 3 Pro Preview? The short answer

Pick Gemini 3 Pro Preview: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 28.0 against 21.4) at about the same price.

  • Gemini 3 Pro Preview scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 28.0 against 21.4.
  • Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is newer: released 13 Feb 2026, against 18 Nov 2025 for Gemini 3 Pro Preview.
  • On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Qwen3.5-397B-A17B does better for agents and tool use; Gemini 3 Pro Preview for reasoning and knowledge, writing and sticking to the facts.

Head to head

21.4
Intelligence Index
28.0

Every fact side by side

Qwen3.5-397B-A17BGemini 3 Pro Preview
Price per million tokens$0.55 in · $3.50 outNot on sale
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$1.29–
Cheapest host, blended$0.88 (Alibaba)–
Intelligence Index21.428.0
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second56–
Context window262,144 tokens–
Released13 Feb 2026 (newer)18 Nov 2025
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 71 of 168 79 of 169
Professional workReal tasks from banking, consulting and law, business documents and freelance projects 48 of 51 45 of 52
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 77 of 202 48 of 203
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 70 of 189 21 of 190
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 76 of 153 69 of 154

From our research

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-A17BGemini 3 Pro Preview
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results
Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 80 · 16 of 387 measured 1,442 1,485
Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better 70 · 11 of 163 measured 1,445 1,481
Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 73 · 28 of 380 measured 1,446 1,474
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 103 · 63 of 249 measured 21.4no reasoning 28.0high reasoning
GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 53 · 35 of 232 measured 89.3% 90.8%high reasoning
Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 83 · 46 of 248 measured 29.0% 39.7%high reasoning
τ²-bench reported by τ²-bench · 3 results
Task success (pass^1) · tau2 v1.0.1, airline% of tasks, higher is better 5 · 6 of 7 measured 81.5%thinking reasoning, tau2 80.5%high reasoning, tau2
Task success (pass^1) · tau2 v1.0.1, retail% of tasks, higher is better 1 · 5 of 7 measured 84.4%thinking reasoning, tau2 75.9%high reasoning, tau2
Task success (pass^1) · tau2 v1.0.1, telecom% of tasks, higher is better 1 · 4 of 7 measured 97.8%thinking reasoning, tau2 91.0%high reasoning, tau2
UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results
Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 77 · 25 of 230 measured 50.1no reasoning 66.7high reasoning
Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better 134 · 176 of 230 measured 23.0%no reasoning 33.0%low reasoning
Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better 164 · 49 of 230 measured 0.33no reasoning 0.37high reasoning
Show all 23 results (11 more)
MeasureQwen3.5-397B-A17BGemini 3 Pro Preview
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 4 results
Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 86 · 8 of 385 measured 1,405 1,484
Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 67 · 39 of 338 measured 1,477 1,498
Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 78 · 26 of 387 measured 1,434 1,473
Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 80 · 10 of 386 measured 1,421 1,481
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 4 results
IFBench% of instructions, higher is better 8 · 52 of 195 measured 78.8% 70.4%high reasoning
Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 71 · 78 of 239 measured 77.3% 76.0%high reasoning
Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks, higher is better 34 · 32 of 190 measured 40.9% 41.7%high reasoning
τ²-bench telecom% of tasks, higher is better 16 · 49 of 193 measured 95.6% 87.1%high reasoning
τ²-bench reported by τ²-bench · 3 results
Consistency (pass^4) · tau2 v1.0.1, airline% of tasks, higher is better 4 · 6 of 7 measured 68.0%thinking reasoning, tau2 66.0%high reasoning, tau2
Consistency (pass^4) · tau2 v1.0.1, retail% of tasks, higher is better 1 · 5 of 7 measured 59.7%thinking reasoning, tau2 47.4%high reasoning, tau2
Consistency (pass^4) · tau2 v1.0.1, telecom% of tasks, higher is better 1 · 3 of 7 measured 92.1%thinking reasoning, tau2 74.6%high reasoning, tau2

Quick answers

Is Qwen3.5-397B-A17B better than Gemini 3 Pro Preview?

Pick Gemini 3 Pro Preview: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 28.0 against 21.4) at about the same price.

Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or Gemini 3 Pro Preview?

Qwen3.5-397B-A17B ranks 71 of 168 models on sale for multi-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls, against 79 for Gemini 3 Pro Preview.

Which is better for professional work, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or Gemini 3 Pro Preview?

Gemini 3 Pro Preview ranks 45 of 51 models on sale for real tasks from banking, consulting and law, business documents and freelance projects, against 48 for Qwen3.5-397B-A17B.

Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or Gemini 3 Pro Preview?

Gemini 3 Pro Preview ranks 48 of 202 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 77 for Qwen3.5-397B-A17B.

Which is better for writing, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or Gemini 3 Pro Preview?

Gemini 3 Pro Preview ranks 21 of 189 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 70 for Qwen3.5-397B-A17B.

Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or Gemini 3 Pro Preview?

Gemini 3 Pro Preview ranks 69 of 153 models on sale for summarising without inventing things, and factual answers, against 76 for Qwen3.5-397B-A17B.

Run Qwen3.5-397B-A17B and Gemini 3 Pro Preview on your own prompt

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