Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning) vs Qwen3.8 Max
Which is better for the money: Qwen3.5 9B (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 29.0 points higher (40.2 vs 11.2) but costs 9.6× as much to run the benchmark ($3172 vs $329; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.8 Max when you need intelligence above 11.2, and Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning) when 11.2 is enough.
| Metric | Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning) | Qwen3.8 Max | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 11.2 | 40.2 | +258.9% Qwen3.8 Max is 3.6× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $328.86 | $3,172.37 | +864.7% Qwen3.8 Max is 9.6× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 43.82s | 61.90s | +41.3% Qwen3.8 Max is 41.3% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.14 / $0.20 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Video | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.8 Max vs Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning): 258.9% more intelligence, 864.7% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 41.3% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
- Qwen3.8 Max is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 55.10 for $3117.
Qwen3.5 9B (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/qwen3-5-9b/qwen3-8-max-0803 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/qwen3-5-9b/qwen3-8-max-0803?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill