ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3.8 Max vs Gemini 3.5 Flash

Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen3.8 Max 69, Gemini 3.5 Flash 69). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.8 Max

    Released Aug 3, 2026

    69/100
    • ECI156.6
    • Price$2.00 / $6.00
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.8 Max

  2. Google

    Gemini 3.5 Flash

    Released May 19, 2026

    69/100
    • ECI154.5
    • Price$1.50 / $9.00
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Gemini 3.5 Flash

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Qwen3.8 Max 69/100, Gemini 3.5 Flash 69/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.8 Max for raw capability and Gemini 3.5 Flash for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3.8 MaxCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.8 Max 156.6 · Gemini 3.5 Flash 154.5
  • Lowest priceQwen3.8 MaxQwen3.8 Max $3.00 · Gemini 3.5 Flash $3.38 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGemini 3.5 FlashGemini 3.5 Flash 1,048,576 · Qwen3.8 Max 1,000,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemini 3.5 FlashQwen3.8 Max: Text, Images, PDFs, Video · Gemini 3.5 Flash: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3.8 MaxGemini 3.5 Flash
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%8684
Price25%2725
Inputs & features15%90100
Context window10%6061
Overall100%69/10069/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3.8 Max vs Gemini 3.5 Flash specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.8 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)Gemini 3.5 FlashGoogle
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)156.6 (best)154.5
ECI rank#20 of 148 (best)#33 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions92.7%92.8% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics74.7% (best)62.8%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics99.4% (best)95.6%
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues—79.3%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions45.8%66.2% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$2.00$1.50 (best)
Output$6.00 (best)$9.00
Cached input$0.25$0.15 (best)
Blended (3:1)$3.00 (best)$3.38
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Google API
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)
Max output131,072 tokens (best)65,536 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsYesYes
AudioNoYes
VideoYesYes
ReasoningYeslow · medium · xhighYesminimal · low · medium · high
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
API model IDqwen3.8-maxgemini-3.5-flash
API providers2532 (best)
ReleasedAug 3, 2026May 19, 2026
Knowledge cutoff—Jan 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.

  • Qwen3.8 Max$32.00
  • Gemini 3.5 Flash$33.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3.8 Max or Gemini 3.5 Flash?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Qwen3.8 Max 69/100, Gemini 3.5 Flash 69/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.8 Max for raw capability and Gemini 3.5 Flash for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.8 Max or Gemini 3.5 Flash?

Qwen3.8 Max is cheaper at $2.00 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Gemini 3.5 Flash costs $1.50 input / $9.00 output per million tokens (official Google API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $3.00 per million tokens for Qwen3.8 Max versus $3.38 for Gemini 3.5 Flash (1.1× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3.8 Max scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.8 Max 156.6 (#20 of 148) and Gemini 3.5 Flash 154.5 (#33 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (154.5–158.8 vs 152.5–156.6), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Gemini 3.5 Flash 92.8%, Qwen3.8 Max 92.7%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Qwen3.8 Max 74.7%, Gemini 3.5 Flash 62.8%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.8 Max 99.4%, Gemini 3.5 Flash 95.6%; SimpleQA Verified — Gemini 3.5 Flash 66.2%, Qwen3.8 Max 45.8%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3.8 Max yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3.8 Max 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?

Gemini 3.5 Flash has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 1,000,000 for Qwen3.8 Max. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.8 Max up to 131,072, Gemini 3.5 Flash up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3.8 Max accepts text, images, PDFs and video; Gemini 3.5 Flash accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video. Gemini 3.5 Flash handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

No. Qwen3.8 Max and Gemini 3.5 Flash are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.8 Max is the newest, released Aug 3, 2026. Gemini 3.5 Flash came out May 19, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 3.5 Flash Jan 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

Related comparisons