Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) vs Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) by Alibaba 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
Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) scores 7.2 points higher (18.4 vs 11.2) but costs 2.9× as much to run the benchmark ($941 vs $329; premium vs mid-range cost classes). Pick Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning).
| Metric | Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) | Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 18.4 | 11.2 | −39.1% Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning) is 39.1% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $940.97 | $328.86 | −65.1% Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning) is 65.1% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 65.86s | 43.82s | −33.5% Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning) is 33.5% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.60 / $3.60 | $0.14 / $0.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning) vs Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning): 39.1% less intelligence, 65.1% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 33.5% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
- Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning)Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
Compare something else
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/qwen3-5-397b-a17b/qwen3-5-9b · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/qwen3-5-397b-a17b/qwen3-5-9b?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill