Compare / Qwen3.5-397B-A17B vs Gemma 4 26B A4B

Qwen3.5-397B-A17B vs Gemma 4 26B A4B

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 23 results on 3 sources that measured both models.

AlibabaQwen3.5-397B-A17B Released 13 Feb 2026 · $0.55 in · $3.50 out
GoogleGemma 4 26B A4B Released 2 Apr 2026 · $0.10 in · $0.30 out
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B wins 127 too close to callGemma 4 26B A4B wins 4

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 9 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-09-dd620e778ac5). See also Alibaba vs Google, every model from both labs.

Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or Gemma 4 26B A4B? The short answer

Pick Qwen3.5-397B-A17B if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 21.4 against 16.7). Pick Gemma 4 26B A4B if cost matters more: it costs 8.6 times less per token.

  • Gemma 4 26B A4B is cheaper: $0.15 against $1.29 per million tokens, 8.6 times less.
  • Qwen3.5-397B-A17B scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 21.4 against 16.7.
  • Gemma 4 26B A4B is newer: released 2 Apr 2026, against 13 Feb 2026 for Qwen3.5-397B-A17B.
  • On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Qwen3.5-397B-A17B does better for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge and writing.

Head to head

21.4
Intelligence Index
16.7
$1.29
Price per million tokens, blendedlower is better
$0.15
90
Output speed, tokens a second
91
262,144
Context window, tokens
262,144

Every fact side by side

Qwen3.5-397B-A17BGemma 4 26B A4B
Price per million tokens$0.55 in · $3.50 out$0.10 in · $0.30 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$1.29$0.15
Cheapest host, blended$0.88 (Alibaba)$0.086 (Darkbloom)
Intelligence Index21.416.7
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second9091
Context window262,144 tokens262,144 tokens
Released13 Feb 20262 Apr 2026 (newer)
WeightsOpenOpen
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 70 of 164 94 of 164
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 73 of 198 104 of 198
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 69 of 188 83 of 188
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 75 of 152 41 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.

MeasureQwen3.5-397B-A17BGemma 4 26B A4B
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results
Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 80 · 87 of 387 measured 1,442 1,437
Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better 70 · 71 of 163 measured 1,445 1,445
Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 73 · 78 of 380 measured 1,446 1,444
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 97 · 117 of 243 measured 21.4no reasoning 16.7
GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 53 · 112 of 231 measured 89.3% 79.2%
Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 77 · 111 of 242 measured 29.0% 19.3%
UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results
Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 77 · 92 of 230 measured 50.1no reasoning 43.8channel-thought-prefill reasoning
Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better 134 · 25 of 230 measured 23.0%no reasoning 8.0%
Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better 164 · 93 of 230 measured 0.33no reasoning 0.35channel-thought-prefill reasoning
Show all 23 results (14 more)
MeasureQwen3.5-397B-A17BGemma 4 26B A4B
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 4 results
Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 86 · 96 of 385 measured 1,405 1,400
Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 67 · 71 of 338 measured 1,477 1,475
Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 78 · 71 of 387 measured 1,434 1,437
Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 80 · 97 of 386 measured 1,421 1,406
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 10 results
Terminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks, higher is better 61 · 74 of 130 measured 51.3% 39.0%
τ-bench banking% of tasks, higher is better 64 · 70 of 121 measured 13.4% 12.0%
Artificial Analysis Coding Indexindex score, higher is better 61 · 75 of 131 measured 48.2 39.3
IFBench% of instructions, higher is better 8 · 40 of 195 measured 78.8% 72.4%
Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 66 · 123 of 233 measured 77.3% 65.7%
Output speedtokens per second, higher is better 42 · 41 of 74 measured 90.0 90.7no reasoning
SciCode% of problems, higher is better 66 · 78 of 113 measured 44.8% 40.0%
Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks, higher is better 34 · 78 of 190 measured 40.9% 25.0%no reasoning
Time to first answer tokenseconds, lower is better 34 · 14 of 74 measured 1.59no reasoning 0.66no reasoning
τ²-bench telecom% of tasks, higher is better 16 · 110 of 193 measured 95.6% 43.6%

Quick answers

Is Qwen3.5-397B-A17B better than Gemma 4 26B A4B?

Pick Qwen3.5-397B-A17B if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 21.4 against 16.7). Pick Gemma 4 26B A4B if cost matters more: it costs 8.6 times less per token.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or Gemma 4 26B A4B?

Gemma 4 26B A4B is cheaper: $0.15 against $1.29 per million tokens, 8.6 times less.

Which is faster, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or Gemma 4 26B A4B?

Gemma 4 26B A4B writes about 91 tokens a second on its usual API, against 90 for Qwen3.5-397B-A17B (Artificial Analysis).

Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or Gemma 4 26B A4B?

Qwen3.5-397B-A17B ranks 70 of 164 models on sale for multi-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls, against 94 for Gemma 4 26B A4B.

Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or Gemma 4 26B A4B?

Qwen3.5-397B-A17B ranks 73 of 198 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 104 for Gemma 4 26B A4B.

Which is better for writing, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or Gemma 4 26B A4B?

Qwen3.5-397B-A17B ranks 69 of 188 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 83 for Gemma 4 26B A4B.

Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or Gemma 4 26B A4B?

Gemma 4 26B A4B ranks 41 of 152 models on sale for summarising without inventing things, and factual answers, against 75 for Qwen3.5-397B-A17B.

Run Qwen3.5-397B-A17B and Gemma 4 26B A4B on your own prompt

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