ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Gemini 3.5 Flash vs Qwen3.5 397B-A17B vs Qwen3.7 Max

Gemini 3.5 Flash comes out ahead, 69 to 65 and 58 on our weighted score, though Qwen3.5 397B-A17B is 2.5× cheaper per token.

  1. Our pick

    Google

    Gemini 3.5 Flash

    Released May 19, 2026

    69/100
    • ECI154.5
    • Price$1.50 / $9.00
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Gemini 3.5 Flash

  2. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.5 397B-A17B

    Released Feb 15, 2026

    65/100
    • ECI146.7
    • Price$0.60 / $3.60
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.5 397B-A17B

  3. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.7 Max

    Released May 21, 2026

    58/100
    • ECI153.7
    • Price$2.50 / $7.50
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.7 Max
01 — Verdict

Gemini 3.5 Flash is our pick

Gemini 3.5 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 69/100 against Qwen3.5 397B-A17B (65) and Qwen3.7 Max (58). It leads on inputs & features. Qwen3.5 397B-A17B wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityGemini 3.5 FlashCapabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 3.5 Flash 154.5 · Qwen3.7 Max 153.7 · Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 146.7
  • Lowest priceQwen3.5 397B-A17BQwen3.5 397B-A17B $1.35 · Gemini 3.5 Flash $3.38 · Qwen3.7 Max $3.75 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGemini 3.5 FlashGemini 3.5 Flash 1,048,576 · Qwen3.7 Max 1,000,000 · Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemini 3.5 FlashGemini 3.5 Flash: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Qwen3.5 397B-A17B: Text, Images, Audio, Video · Qwen3.7 Max: Text
  • Self-hostingQwen3.5 397B-A17BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGemini 3.5 FlashQwen3.5 397B-A17BQwen3.7 Max
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%847483
Price25%254423
Inputs & features15%1009035
Context window10%613760
Overall100%69/10065/10058/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Gemini 3.5 Flash vs Qwen3.5 397B-A17B vs Qwen3.7 Max specifications side by side
SpecificationGemini 3.5 FlashGoogleQwen3.5 397B-A17BAlibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.7 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)154.5 (best)146.7153.7
ECI rank#33 of 148 (best)#67 of 148#37 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions92.8% (best)86.4%90.9%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics62.8%31.2%64.6% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics95.6% (best)88.9%95.6% (best)
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues79.3% (best)—77.3%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions66.2% (best)—55.8%
Price per million tokens
Input$1.50$0.60 (best)$2.50
Output$9.00$3.60 (best)$7.50
Cached input$0.15 (best)—$0.50
Blended (3:1)$3.38$1.35 (best)$3.75
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Google APIOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window1,048,576 tokens (best)262,144 tokens1,000,000 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens65,536 tokens65,536 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesNo
PDFsYesNoNo
AudioYesYesNo
VideoYesYesNo
ReasoningYesminimal · low · medium · highYesYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesYesNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpenProprietary
API model IDgemini-3.5-flashqwen3.5-397b-a17bqwen3.7-max
API providers32 (best)2326
ReleasedMay 19, 2026Feb 15, 2026May 21, 2026
Knowledge cutoffJan 2025——
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • Gemini 3.5 Flash$33.00
  • Qwen3.5 397B-A17B$13.20
  • Qwen3.7 Max$40.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Gemini 3.5 Flash, Qwen3.5 397B-A17B or Qwen3.7 Max?

Gemini 3.5 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 69/100 against Qwen3.5 397B-A17B (65) and Qwen3.7 Max (58). It leads on inputs & features. Qwen3.5 397B-A17B wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Qwen3.5 397B-A17B or Qwen3.7 Max?

Qwen3.5 397B-A17B is cheaper at $0.60 input / $3.60 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Gemini 3.5 Flash costs $1.50 input / $9.00 output per million tokens (official Google API price); Qwen3.7 Max costs $2.50 input / $7.50 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $1.35 per million tokens for Qwen3.5 397B-A17B versus $3.38 for Gemini 3.5 Flash (2.5× as much) and $3.75 for Qwen3.7 Max (2.8× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Gemini 3.5 Flash scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 3.5 Flash 154.5 (#33 of 148), Qwen3.7 Max 153.7 (#37 of 148) and Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 146.7 (#67 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (152.5–156.6 vs 151.9–156.0), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Gemini 3.5 Flash 92.8%, Qwen3.7 Max 90.9%, Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 86.4%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Qwen3.7 Max 64.6%, Gemini 3.5 Flash 62.8%, Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 31.2%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Gemini 3.5 Flash 95.6%, Qwen3.7 Max 95.6%, Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 88.9%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3.5 397B-A17B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Gemini 3.5 Flash leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemini 3.5 Flash has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 1,000,000 for Qwen3.7 Max and 262,144 for Qwen3.5 397B-A17B. Maximum output per response: Gemini 3.5 Flash up to 65,536, Qwen3.5 397B-A17B up to 65,536, Qwen3.7 Max up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Gemini 3.5 Flash accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Qwen3.5 397B-A17B accepts text, images, audio and video; Qwen3.7 Max accepts text. Gemini 3.5 Flash handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3.5 397B-A17B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Gemini 3.5 Flash and Qwen3.7 Max is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.7 Max is the newest, released May 21, 2026. Gemini 3.5 Flash came out May 19, 2026; Qwen3.5 397B-A17B came out Feb 15, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 3.5 Flash Jan 2025.

How do you decide the winner?

Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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