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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3.8 Max vs Qwen3.5 Flash

Qwen3.5 Flash comes out ahead, 75 to 69 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  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. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.5 Flash

    Released Feb 23, 2026

    75/100
    • ECI144.0
    • Price$0.10 / $0.40
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.5 Flash

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Qwen3.5 Flash is our pick

Qwen3.5 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 75/100 against Qwen3.8 Max (69). It leads on price. Qwen3.8 Max wins on capability and inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3.8 MaxCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.8 Max 156.6 · Qwen3.5 Flash 144.0
  • Lowest priceQwen3.5 FlashQwen3.5 Flash $0.175 · Qwen3.8 Max $3.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextAbout the sameQwen3.8 Max 1,000,000 · Qwen3.5 Flash 1,000,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.8 MaxQwen3.8 Max: Text, Images, PDFs, Video · Qwen3.5 Flash: Text, Images, Video
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3.8 MaxQwen3.5 Flash
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%8671
Price25%2786
Inputs & features15%9080
Context window10%6060
Overall100%69/10075/100
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 Qwen3.5 Flash specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.8 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.5 FlashAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)156.6 (best)144.0
ECI rank#20 of 148 (best)#82 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions92.7% (best)82.3%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics74.7% (best)18.3%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics99.4% (best)84.4%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions45.8% (best)20.3%
Price per million tokens
Input$2.00$0.10 (best)
Output$6.00$0.40 (best)
Cached input$0.25$0.01 (best)
Blended (3:1)$3.00$0.175 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens1,000,000 tokens
Max output131,072 tokens (best)65,536 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsYesNo
AudioNoNo
VideoYesYes
ReasoningYeslow · medium · xhighYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
API model IDqwen3.8-maxqwen3.5-flash
API providers25 (best)8
ReleasedAug 3, 2026Feb 23, 2026
Knowledge cutoff——
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
  • Qwen3.5 Flash$1.80
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3.8 Max or Qwen3.5 Flash?

Qwen3.5 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 75/100 against Qwen3.8 Max (69). It leads on price. Qwen3.8 Max wins on capability and inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.8 Max or Qwen3.5 Flash?

Qwen3.5 Flash is cheaper at $0.10 input / $0.40 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Qwen3.8 Max costs $2.00 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 $0.175 per million tokens for Qwen3.5 Flash versus $3.00 for Qwen3.8 Max (17× 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 Qwen3.5 Flash 144.0 (#82 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (154.5–158.8 vs 141.6–145.5), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3.8 Max 92.7%, Qwen3.5 Flash 82.3%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Qwen3.8 Max 74.7%, Qwen3.5 Flash 18.3%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.8 Max 99.4%, Qwen3.5 Flash 84.4%; SimpleQA Verified — Qwen3.8 Max 45.8%, Qwen3.5 Flash 20.3%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3.8 Max and Qwen3.5 Flash 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?

Qwen3.8 Max and Qwen3.5 Flash share the same 1,000,000-token context window. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.8 Max up to 131,072, Qwen3.5 Flash up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3.8 Max accepts text, images, PDFs and video; Qwen3.5 Flash accepts text, images and video. Qwen3.8 Max handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

No. Qwen3.8 Max and Qwen3.5 Flash are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.8 Max is the newest, released Aug 3, 2026. Qwen3.5 Flash came out Feb 23, 2026.

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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