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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 vs Qwen3.5 9B

Qwen3.5 9B comes out ahead, 72 to 58 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507

    Released Jul 21, 2025

    58/100
    • ECI138.9
    • Price$0.15 / $0.75
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507
  2. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.5 9B

    Released Feb 23, 2026

    72/100
    • ECI139.5
    • Price$0.10 / $0.15
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.5 9B

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Qwen3.5 9B is our pick

Qwen3.5 9B is the better all-round choice, scoring 72/100 against Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 (58). It leads on price and inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3.5 9BCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.5 9B 139.5 · Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 138.9
  • Lowest priceQwen3.5 9BQwen3.5 9B $0.113 · Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 $0.30 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextAbout the sameQwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 262,144 · Qwen3.5 9B 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.5 9BQwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507: Text · Qwen3.5 9B: Text, Images, Video
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507Qwen3.5 9B
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%6465
Price25%7595
Inputs & features15%2580
Context window10%3737
Overall100%58/10072/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 vs Qwen3.5 9B specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.5 9BAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)138.9139.5 (best)
ECI rank#105 of 148#101 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions—79.0%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—61.7%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.15$0.10 (best)
Output$0.75$0.15 (best)
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.30$0.113 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 11 providersMedian of 14 providers
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens262,144 tokens
Max output16,384 tokens65,536 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoYes
ReasoningNoYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoYes
Availability
WeightsOpenApache 2.0Open
API model ID——
API providers1115 (best)
ReleasedJul 21, 2025Feb 23, 2026
Knowledge cutoff——
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 235B-A22B Instruct 2507$3.00
  • Qwen3.5 9B$1.30
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 or Qwen3.5 9B?

Qwen3.5 9B is the better all-round choice, scoring 72/100 against Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 (58). It leads on price and inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 or Qwen3.5 9B?

Qwen3.5 9B is cheaper at $0.10 input / $0.15 output per million tokens (median across 14 API providers). Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 costs $0.15 input / $0.75 output per million tokens (median across 11 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.113 per million tokens for Qwen3.5 9B versus $0.30 for Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 (2.7× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3.5 9B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.5 9B 139.5 (#101 of 148) and Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 138.9 (#105 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (136.5–141.3 vs 135.8–140.6), so treat the gap as small.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 and Qwen3.5 9B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3.5 9B 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 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 and Qwen3.5 9B share the same 262,144-token context window. Maximum output per response: Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 up to 16,384, Qwen3.5 9B up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 accepts text; Qwen3.5 9B accepts text, images and video. Qwen3.5 9B handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Yes, both publish their weights (Apache 2.0), so you can self-host them.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.5 9B is the newest, released Feb 23, 2026. Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 came out Jul 21, 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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