ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3.5 397B-A17B vs Qwen3 Max vs GLM-5

Qwen3.5 397B-A17B comes out ahead, 65 to 55 and 50 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Our pick

    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

  2. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 Max

    Released Sep 23, 2025

    50/100
    • ECI142.4
    • Price$1.20 / $6.00
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 Max

  3. Z.ai (Zhipu)

    GLM-5

    Released Feb 12, 2026

    55/100
    • ECI145.8
    • Price$1.00 / $3.20
    • Context205K
    Full specs Remove GLM-5
01 — Verdict

Qwen3.5 397B-A17B is our pick

Qwen3.5 397B-A17B is the better all-round choice, scoring 65/100 against GLM-5 (55) and Qwen3 Max (50). It leads on price and inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3.5 397B-A17BCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 146.7 · GLM-5 145.8 · Qwen3 Max 142.4
  • Lowest priceQwen3.5 397B-A17BQwen3.5 397B-A17B $1.35 · GLM-5 $1.55 · Qwen3 Max $2.40 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3.5 397B-A17B and Qwen3 MaxQwen3.5 397B-A17B 262,144 · Qwen3 Max 262,144 · GLM-5 204,800 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.5 397B-A17BQwen3.5 397B-A17B: Text, Images, Audio, Video · Qwen3 Max: Text · GLM-5: Text
  • Self-hostingQwen3.5 397B-A17B and GLM-5Publishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3.5 397B-A17BQwen3 MaxGLM-5
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%746873
Price25%443241
Inputs & features15%902535
Context window10%373732
Overall100%65/10050/10055/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3.5 397B-A17B vs Qwen3 Max vs GLM-5 specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.5 397B-A17BAlibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)GLM-5Z.ai (Zhipu)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)146.7 (best)142.4145.8
ECI rank#67 of 148 (best)#91 of 148#74 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions86.4%72.6%87.8% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics31.2% (best)19.0%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics88.9% (best)73.3%80.0%
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues——72.1%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—48.8%—
Price per million tokens
Input$0.60 (best)$1.20$1.00
Output$3.60$6.00$3.20 (best)
Cached input——$0.20
Blended (3:1)$1.35 (best)$2.40$1.55
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Z.AI API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens (best)262,144 tokens (best)204,800 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens65,536 tokens131,072 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesNoNo
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioYesNoNo
VideoYesNoNo
ReasoningYesNoYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietaryOpen
API model IDqwen3.5-397b-a17bqwen3-maxglm-5
API providers231627 (best)
ReleasedFeb 15, 2026Sep 23, 2025Feb 12, 2026
Knowledge cutoff—Apr 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.

  • Qwen3.5 397B-A17B$13.20
  • Qwen3 Max$24.00
  • GLM-5$16.40
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3.5 397B-A17B, Qwen3 Max or GLM-5?

Qwen3.5 397B-A17B is the better all-round choice, scoring 65/100 against GLM-5 (55) and Qwen3 Max (50). It leads on price and inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.5 397B-A17B, Qwen3 Max or GLM-5?

Qwen3.5 397B-A17B is cheaper at $0.60 input / $3.60 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). GLM-5 costs $1.00 input / $3.20 output per million tokens (official Z.AI API price); Qwen3 Max costs $1.20 input / $6.00 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 $1.55 for GLM-5 (1.1× as much) and $2.40 for Qwen3 Max (1.8× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3.5 397B-A17B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 146.7 (#67 of 148), GLM-5 145.8 (#74 of 148) and Qwen3 Max 142.4 (#91 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (144.8–148.2 vs 143.9–147.7), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — GLM-5 87.8%, Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 86.4%, Qwen3 Max 72.6%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 88.9%, GLM-5 80.0%, Qwen3 Max 73.3%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3.5 397B-A17B and Qwen3 Max yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 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?

Qwen3.5 397B-A17B and Qwen3 Max have the largest context windows (262,144 and 262,144 tokens), against 204,800 for GLM-5. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.5 397B-A17B up to 65,536, Qwen3 Max up to 65,536, GLM-5 up to 131,072 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3.5 397B-A17B accepts text, images, audio and video; Qwen3 Max accepts text; GLM-5 accepts text. Qwen3.5 397B-A17B handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3.5 397B-A17B and GLM-5 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Qwen3 Max is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.5 397B-A17B is the newest, released Feb 15, 2026. GLM-5 came out Feb 12, 2026; Qwen3 Max came out Sep 23, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3 Max 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

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