GPT-6 Sol (Non-reasoning) vs Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: GPT-6 Sol (Non-reasoning) by OpenAI or Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning) by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GPT-6 Sol (Non-reasoning) scores 17.3 points higher (28.5 vs 11.2) but costs 1.4× as much to run the benchmark ($449 vs $329; both mid-range class). Pick GPT-6 Sol (Non-reasoning) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning).
| Metric | GPT-6 Sol (Non-reasoning) | Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 28.5 | 11.2 | −60.7% Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning) is 60.7% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $449.37 | $328.86 | −26.8% Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning) is 26.8% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 5.75s | 42.11s | +632.3% Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning) is 632.3% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $0.14 / $0.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning) vs GPT-6 Sol (Non-reasoning): 60.7% less intelligence, 26.8% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 632.3% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-6 Sol (Non-reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
- Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
GPT-6 Sol (Non-reasoning)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-6-sol-non-reasoning/qwen3-5-9b · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-6-sol-non-reasoning/qwen3-5-9b?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill