Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) vs Qwen3.8 Max
Which is better for the money: Qwen3.6 35B A3B (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 22.0 points higher (40.2 vs 18.2) but costs 3.5× as much to run the benchmark ($3172 vs $896; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.8 Max when you need intelligence above 18.2, and Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) when 18.2 is enough.
| Metric | Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) | Qwen3.8 Max | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 18.2 | 40.2 | +120.9% Qwen3.8 Max is 2.2× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $896.39 | $3,172.37 | +253.9% Qwen3.8 Max is 3.5× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 46.69s | 63.35s | +35.7% Qwen3.8 Max is 35.7% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.38 / $2.25 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Video | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.8 Max vs Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning): 120.9% more intelligence, 253.9% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 35.7% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B (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.
Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning)Qwen3.8 MaxToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
Compare something else
Agents:
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/qwen3-6-35b-a3b/qwen3-8-max-0803 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/qwen3-6-35b-a3b/qwen3-8-max-0803?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill