GPT-5.6 Terra (Low) vs Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.6 Terra (Low) by OpenAI or Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning) by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GPT-5.6 Terra (Low) scores 16.3 points higher (27.5 vs 11.2) but costs 1.1× as much to run the benchmark ($350 vs $329; both mid-range class). Pick GPT-5.6 Terra (Low) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning).
| Metric | GPT-5.6 Terra (Low) | Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 27.5 | 11.2 | −59.3% Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning) is 59.3% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $350.36 | $328.86 | −6.1% Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning) is 6.1% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 5.91s | 43.82s | +641.5% Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning) is 641.5% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $12.0 | $0.14 / $0.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning) vs GPT-5.6 Terra (Low): 59.3% less intelligence, 6.1% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 641.5% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5.6 Terra (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
- Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
GPT-5.6 Terra (Low)Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-6-terra-low/qwen3-5-9b · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-6-terra-low/qwen3-5-9b?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill