Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning) vs Ring-2.6-1T
Which is better for the money: Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning) by Alibaba or Ring-2.6-1T by InclusionAI? 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
Ring-2.6-1T scores 5.4 points higher (16.6 vs 11.2) but costs 1.8× as much to run the benchmark ($576 vs $329; premium vs mid-range cost classes). Pick Ring-2.6-1T when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning).
| Metric | Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning) | Ring-2.6-1T | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 11.2 | 16.6 | +48.2% Ring-2.6-1T is 48.2% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $328.86 | $575.60 | +75.0% Ring-2.6-1T is 75.0% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 46.17s | 24.15s | −47.7% Ring-2.6-1T is 47.7% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.14 / $0.20 | $0.30 / $2.50 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Video | Text |
Ring-2.6-1T vs Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning): 48.2% more intelligence, 75.0% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 47.7% faster 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.
- Ring-2.6-1T is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (High) scores 50.20 for $521.
Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning)Ring-2.6-1TToday'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/ring-2-6-1t · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/qwen3-5-9b/ring-2-6-1t?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill