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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3.5 9B vs GPT-5 Nano vs Gemma 4 26B A4B IT

Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen3.5 9B 72, GPT-5 Nano 70, Gemma 4 26B A4B IT 70). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. 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

  2. OpenAI

    GPT-5 Nano

    Released Aug 7, 2025

    70/100
    • ECI139.4
    • Price$0.05 / $0.40
    • Context400K
    Full specs Remove GPT-5 Nano

  3. Google

    Gemma 4 26B A4B IT

    Released Apr 2, 2026

    70/100
    • ECI141.9
    • Price$0.10 / $0.38
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Qwen3.5 9B 72/100, GPT-5 Nano 70/100, Gemma 4 26B A4B IT 70/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Gemma 4 26B A4B IT for raw capability, Qwen3.5 9B on price and GPT-5 Nano for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityGemma 4 26B A4B ITCapabilities Index (ECI): Gemma 4 26B A4B IT 141.9 · Qwen3.5 9B 139.5 · GPT-5 Nano 139.4
  • Lowest priceQwen3.5 9BQwen3.5 9B $0.113 · GPT-5 Nano $0.138 · Gemma 4 26B A4B IT $0.17 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGPT-5 NanoGPT-5 Nano 400,000 · Qwen3.5 9B 262,144 · Gemma 4 26B A4B IT 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.5 9BQwen3.5 9B: Text, Images, Video · GPT-5 Nano: Text, Images · Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingQwen3.5 9B and Gemma 4 26B A4B ITPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3.5 9BGPT-5 NanoGemma 4 26B A4B IT
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%656568
Price25%959186
Inputs & features15%807070
Context window10%374437
Overall100%72/10070/10070/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3.5 9B vs GPT-5 Nano vs Gemma 4 26B A4B IT specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.5 9BAlibaba (Qwen)GPT-5 NanoOpenAIGemma 4 26B A4B ITGoogle
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)139.5139.4141.9 (best)
ECI rank#101 of 148#102 of 148#93 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions79.0% (best)69.4%73.2%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—20.0%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics61.7%81.1%82.2% (best)
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—11.7%—
Price per million tokens
Input$0.10$0.05 (best)$0.10
Output$0.15 (best)$0.40$0.38
Cached input—$0.005—
Blended (3:1)$0.113 (best)$0.138$0.17
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 14 providersOfficial OpenAI APIMedian of 23 providers
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens400,000 tokens (best)262,144 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens128,000 tokens (best)32,768 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesYes
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoYesNoNo
ReasoningYesYesminimal · low · medium · highYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesYesYes
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietaryOpen
API model ID—gpt-5-nanogemma-4-26b-a4b-it
API providers152126 (best)
ReleasedFeb 23, 2026Aug 7, 2025Apr 2, 2026
Knowledge cutoff—May 30, 2024—
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 9B$1.30
  • GPT-5 Nano$1.30
  • Gemma 4 26B A4B IT$1.76
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3.5 9B, GPT-5 Nano or Gemma 4 26B A4B IT?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Qwen3.5 9B 72/100, GPT-5 Nano 70/100, Gemma 4 26B A4B IT 70/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Gemma 4 26B A4B IT for raw capability, Qwen3.5 9B on price and GPT-5 Nano for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.5 9B, GPT-5 Nano or Gemma 4 26B A4B IT?

Qwen3.5 9B is cheaper at $0.10 input / $0.15 output per million tokens (median across 14 API providers). GPT-5 Nano costs $0.05 input / $0.40 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price); Gemma 4 26B A4B IT costs $0.10 input / $0.38 output per million tokens (median across 23 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 $0.138 for GPT-5 Nano (1.2× as much) and $0.17 for Gemma 4 26B A4B IT (1.5× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Gemma 4 26B A4B IT 141.9 (#93 of 148), Qwen3.5 9B 139.5 (#101 of 148) and GPT-5 Nano 139.4 (#102 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (138.4–143.4 vs 136.5–141.3), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3.5 9B 79.0%, Gemma 4 26B A4B IT 73.2%, GPT-5 Nano 69.4%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Gemma 4 26B A4B IT 82.2%, GPT-5 Nano 81.1%, Qwen3.5 9B 61.7%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3.5 9B, GPT-5 Nano and Gemma 4 26B A4B IT yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Gemma 4 26B A4B IT 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?

GPT-5 Nano has the largest context window at 400,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3.5 9B and 262,144 for Gemma 4 26B A4B IT. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.5 9B up to 65,536, GPT-5 Nano up to 128,000, Gemma 4 26B A4B IT up to 32,768 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3.5 9B accepts text, images and video; GPT-5 Nano accepts text and images; Gemma 4 26B A4B IT accepts text and images. Qwen3.5 9B handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3.5 9B and Gemma 4 26B A4B IT publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; GPT-5 Nano is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT is the newest, released Apr 2, 2026. Qwen3.5 9B came out Feb 23, 2026; GPT-5 Nano came out Aug 7, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: GPT-5 Nano May 30, 2024.

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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