Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) vs Qwen3.8 Max
Which is better for the money: Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) by Alibaba or Qwen3.8 Max 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
Qwen3.8 Max scores 21.8 points higher (40.2 vs 18.4) but costs 3.4× as much to run the benchmark ($3172 vs $941; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.8 Max when you need intelligence above 18.4, and Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) when 18.4 is enough.
| Metric | Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) | Qwen3.8 Max | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 18.4 | 40.2 | +118.5% Qwen3.8 Max is 2.2× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $940.97 | $3,172.37 | +237.1% Qwen3.8 Max is 3.4× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 65.86s | 63.35s | −3.8% Qwen3.8 Max is 3.8% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.60 / $3.60 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.8 Max vs Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning): 118.5% more intelligence, 237.1% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 3.8% 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.
- Qwen3.8 Max is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 55.10 for $3117.
Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning)Qwen3.8 MaxToday'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/qwen3-5-397b-a17b/qwen3-8-max-0803 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/qwen3-5-397b-a17b/qwen3-8-max-0803?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill