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Qwen3.5 35B A3B vs Qwen3.5 397B A17B

Alibaba · released

Wins 0 of 8 areas

—

Alibaba · released

Wins 7 of 8 areas

Coding · Agents · Reasoning · Images and charts · Math · Long documents · Following instructions

Qwen3.5 397B A17B is the stronger all-rounder.Qwen3.5 35B A3B is cheaper.

Scores updated · 65 tests both models report · How we compare

Where each one wins

Tests won in each of the eight areas we test. Each piece is one test, so a longer bar means more evidence; grey means the two scored within a point of each other.

What it costs

Prices per million tokens, roughly 750,000 words. The bars show the cost of a million tokens read plus a million written.

Qwen3.5 35B A3B$0.25 to read · $2.00 to write$2.25Price from Alibaba's own price page
Qwen3.5 397B A17B$0.60 to read · $3.60 to write$4.20Price from Artificial Analysis

Qwen3.5 35B A3B costs 46% less for the same work.

The biggest differences

The tests each model wins by the widest margin, up to three each. Scores are out of 100.

Where Qwen3.5 397B A17B pulls ahead

  • Hard command-line tasks in a real terminalTerminal-Bench Hard+14.4points aheadQwen3.5 397B A17B40.9Qwen3.5 35B A3B26.5
  • Finds the root cause of IT system incidentsAA IT-Bench SRE+12.6points aheadQwen3.5 397B A17B34.1Qwen3.5 35B A3B21.5
  • Answers hard knowledge questions correctlyAA-Omniscience · Accuracy+10.7points aheadQwen3.5 397B A17B30.8Qwen3.5 35B A3B20.1

Where Qwen3.5 35B A3B pulls ahead

  • Avoids making up answers it doesn't knowAA-Omniscience · Non-hallucination+3.5points aheadQwen3.5 35B A3B14.6Qwen3.5 397B A17B11.1
  • US invitational high-school math exam problemsAIME 2026+2points aheadQwen3.5 35B A3B93.3Qwen3.5 397B A17B91.3

Every test, side by side

All 65 tests both models report. The winning score is in its model's colour; marks a score checked independently.

CodingQwen3.5 397B A17B

Full coding ranking

AgentsQwen3.5 397B A17B

Full agents ranking

ReasoningQwen3.5 397B A17B

Full reasoning ranking

FactsEven

Full facts ranking

Images and chartsQwen3.5 397B A17B
  • MMMU-ProQwen3.5 397B A17B by 4.672.777.3+4.6
  • MMMUQwen3.5 397B A17B by 3.681.485+3.6

Full images and charts ranking

MathQwen3.5 397B A17B

Full math ranking

Long documentsQwen3.5 397B A17B

Full long documents ranking

Following instructionsQwen3.5 397B A17B

Full following instructions ranking

Other results39 tests, not counted

Tests outside the eight areas. They are not counted above: several are summary scores built from other tests, or the same test under another name.

Questions people ask

Which is better, Qwen3.5 35B A3B or Qwen3.5 397B A17B?

Qwen3.5 397B A17B wins seven of the eight areas we test: coding, agents, reasoning, images and charts, math, long documents and following instructions. Qwen3.5 35B A3B wins none, but costs 46% less. They are level on facts.

Which is better for coding?

Qwen3.5 397B A17B. It wins 8 of the 8 coding tests both models report; Qwen3.5 35B A3B wins none.

Which is cheaper?

Qwen3.5 35B A3B costs $0.25 per million input tokens and $2.00 per million output tokens; Qwen3.5 397B A17B costs $0.60 and $3.60. That makes Qwen3.5 35B A3B about 46% cheaper for the same work.

How do you compare the two?

We use the 65 benchmark tests both models have published scores on. The verdict counts the 26 tests in the eight capability areas, and a gap under one point (ten on rating-style scales) counts as a tie. The other 39 are listed but not counted, because several are summary scores or repeat a test. Each score is the one shown on the model's own page.

Compare Qwen3.5 35B A3B with

Alibaba

Across the field

Compare Qwen3.5 397B A17B with

Alibaba

Across the field

All comparisons