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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3.5 Plus vs Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct

Qwen3.5 Plus comes out ahead, 66 to 62 on our weighted score, though Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is 2.6× cheaper per token.

  1. 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

  2. Meta

    Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct

    Released Apr 5, 2025

    62/100
    • ECI129.7
    • Price$0.225 / $0.69
    • Context10M
    Full specs Remove Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct

  3. Add a model

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01 — Verdict

Qwen3.5 Plus is our pick

Qwen3.5 Plus is the better all-round choice, scoring 66/100 against Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct (62). It leads on capability and inputs & features. Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct wins on price and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3.5 PlusCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.5 Plus 146.8 · Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 129.7
  • Lowest priceLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct $0.341 · Qwen3.5 Plus $0.90 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 10,000,000 · Qwen3.5 Plus 1,000,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.5 PlusQwen3.5 Plus: Text, Images, Video · Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3.5 PlusLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%7452
Price25%5272
Inputs & features15%7050
Context window10%60100
Overall100%66/10062/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3.5 Plus vs Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.5 PlusAlibaba (Qwen)Llama 4 Scout 17B InstructMeta
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)146.8 (best)129.7
ECI rank#65 of 148 (best)#126 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions84.9% (best)51.8%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics86.7% (best)7.8%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions25.4%—
Price per million tokens
Input$0.40$0.225 (best)
Output$2.40$0.69 (best)
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.90$0.341 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIMedian of 4 providers
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens10,000,000 tokens (best)
Max output65,536 tokens (best)16,384 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoYesNo
ReasoningYesNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpen
API model IDqwen3.5-plus—
API providers10 (best)4
ReleasedFeb 16, 2026Apr 5, 2025
Knowledge cutoffApr 2025Aug 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 Plus$8.80
  • Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct$3.63
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3.5 Plus or Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct?

Qwen3.5 Plus is the better all-round choice, scoring 66/100 against Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct (62). It leads on capability and inputs & features. Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct wins on price and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.5 Plus or Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct?

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is cheaper at $0.225 input / $0.69 output per million tokens (median across 4 API providers). 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 $0.341 per million tokens for Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct versus $0.90 for Qwen3.5 Plus (2.6× 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 Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 129.7 (#126 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (144.6–148.1 vs 124.8–131.4), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3.5 Plus 84.9%, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 51.8%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.5 Plus 86.7%, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 7.8%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3.5 Plus and Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 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?

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct has the largest context window at 10,000,000 tokens, against 1,000,000 for Qwen3.5 Plus. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.5 Plus up to 65,536, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct up to 16,384 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3.5 Plus accepts text, images and video; Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct accepts text and images. Qwen3.5 Plus handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 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. Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct came out Apr 5, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3.5 Plus Apr 2025, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct Aug 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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