ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3 14B vs Qwen3.5 Plus

Qwen3.5 Plus comes out ahead, 66 to 54 on our weighted score, though Qwen3 14B is 32% cheaper per token.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 14B

    Released Apr 29, 2025

    54/100
    • ECI138.2
    • Price$0.35 / $1.40
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 14B
  2. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.5 Plus

    Released Feb 16, 2026

    66/100
    • ECI146.8
    • Price$0.40 / $2.40
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.5 Plus

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Qwen3.5 Plus is our pick

Qwen3.5 Plus is the better all-round choice, scoring 66/100 against Qwen3 14B (54). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. Qwen3 14B wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3.5 PlusCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.5 Plus 146.8 · Qwen3 14B 138.2
  • Lowest priceQwen3 14BQwen3 14B $0.613 · Qwen3.5 Plus $0.90 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3.5 PlusQwen3.5 Plus 1,000,000 · Qwen3 14B 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.5 PlusQwen3 14B: Text · Qwen3.5 Plus: Text, Images, Video
  • Self-hostingQwen3 14BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3 14BQwen3.5 Plus
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%6374
Price25%6052
Inputs & features15%3570
Context window10%2460
Overall100%54/10066/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3 14B vs Qwen3.5 Plus specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3 14BAlibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.5 PlusAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)138.2146.8 (best)
ECI rank#107 of 148#65 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions63.8%84.9% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics66.4%86.7% (best)
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—25.4%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.35 (best)$0.40
Output$1.40 (best)$2.40
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.613 (best)$0.90
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens1,000,000 tokens (best)
Max output8,192 tokens65,536 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoYes
ReasoningYesYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietary
API model IDqwen3-14bqwen3.5-plus
API providers110 (best)
ReleasedApr 29, 2025Feb 16, 2026
Knowledge cutoffApr 2025Apr 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.

  • Qwen3 14B$6.30
  • Qwen3.5 Plus$8.80
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3 14B or Qwen3.5 Plus?

Qwen3.5 Plus is the better all-round choice, scoring 66/100 against Qwen3 14B (54). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. Qwen3 14B wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3 14B or Qwen3.5 Plus?

Qwen3 14B is cheaper at $0.35 input / $1.40 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Qwen3.5 Plus costs $0.40 input / $2.40 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.613 per million tokens for Qwen3 14B versus $0.90 for Qwen3.5 Plus (1.5× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3.5 Plus scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.5 Plus 146.8 (#65 of 148) and Qwen3 14B 138.2 (#107 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (144.6–148.1 vs 133.5–140.1), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3.5 Plus 84.9%, Qwen3 14B 63.8%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.5 Plus 86.7%, Qwen3 14B 66.4%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 14B and Qwen3.5 Plus yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3.5 Plus leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3.5 Plus has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 131,072 for Qwen3 14B. Maximum output per response: Qwen3 14B up to 8,192, Qwen3.5 Plus up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3 14B accepts text; Qwen3.5 Plus accepts text, images and video. Qwen3.5 Plus handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3 14B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Qwen3.5 Plus is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.5 Plus is the newest, released Feb 16, 2026. Qwen3 14B came out Apr 29, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3 14B Apr 2025, Qwen3.5 Plus Apr 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

Related comparisons