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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3.5 Plus vs Qwen3 Max

Qwen3.5 Plus comes out ahead, 66 to 50 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  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. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 Max

    Released Sep 23, 2025

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

  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 Max (50). It leads on capability, price, inputs & features 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 · Qwen3 Max 142.4
  • Lowest priceQwen3.5 PlusQwen3.5 Plus $0.90 · Qwen3 Max $2.40 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3.5 PlusQwen3.5 Plus 1,000,000 · Qwen3 Max 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.5 PlusQwen3.5 Plus: Text, Images, Video · Qwen3 Max: Text
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3.5 PlusQwen3 Max
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%7468
Price25%5232
Inputs & features15%7025
Context window10%6037
Overall100%66/10050/100
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 Qwen3 Max specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.5 PlusAlibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)146.8 (best)142.4
ECI rank#65 of 148 (best)#91 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions84.9% (best)72.6%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—19.0%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics86.7% (best)73.3%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions25.4%48.8% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$0.40 (best)$1.20
Output$2.40 (best)$6.00
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.90 (best)$2.40
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens (best)262,144 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens65,536 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesNo
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoYesNo
ReasoningYesNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
API model IDqwen3.5-plusqwen3-max
API providers1016 (best)
ReleasedFeb 16, 2026Sep 23, 2025
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.

  • Qwen3.5 Plus$8.80
  • Qwen3 Max$24.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3.5 Plus or Qwen3 Max?

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

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.5 Plus or Qwen3 Max?

Qwen3.5 Plus is cheaper at $0.40 input / $2.40 output per million tokens (official Alibaba 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 $0.90 per million tokens for Qwen3.5 Plus versus $2.40 for Qwen3 Max (2.7× 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 Max 142.4 (#91 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (144.6–148.1 vs 140.0–144.6), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3.5 Plus 84.9%, Qwen3 Max 72.6%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.5 Plus 86.7%, Qwen3 Max 73.3%; SimpleQA Verified — Qwen3 Max 48.8%, Qwen3.5 Plus 25.4%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3.5 Plus and Qwen3 Max 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 262,144 for Qwen3 Max. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.5 Plus up to 65,536, Qwen3 Max up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

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

Are any of these open source?

No. Qwen3.5 Plus and Qwen3 Max are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.5 Plus is the newest, released Feb 16, 2026. Qwen3 Max came out Sep 23, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3.5 Plus Apr 2025, 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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