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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3 Max vs Qwen3.5 397B-A17B

Qwen3.5 397B-A17B comes out ahead, 65 to 50 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 Max

    Released Sep 23, 2025

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

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.5 397B-A17B

    Released Feb 15, 2026

    65/100
    • ECI146.7
    • Price$0.60 / $3.60
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.5 397B-A17B

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Qwen3.5 397B-A17B is our pick

Qwen3.5 397B-A17B is the better all-round choice, scoring 65/100 against Qwen3 Max (50). It leads on capability, price and inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3.5 397B-A17BCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 146.7 · Qwen3 Max 142.4
  • Lowest priceQwen3.5 397B-A17BQwen3.5 397B-A17B $1.35 · Qwen3 Max $2.40 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextAbout the sameQwen3 Max 262,144 · Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.5 397B-A17BQwen3 Max: Text · Qwen3.5 397B-A17B: Text, Images, Audio, Video
  • Self-hostingQwen3.5 397B-A17BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3 MaxQwen3.5 397B-A17B
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%6874
Price25%3244
Inputs & features15%2590
Context window10%3737
Overall100%50/10065/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3 Max vs Qwen3.5 397B-A17B specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.5 397B-A17BAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)142.4146.7 (best)
ECI rank#91 of 148#67 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions72.6%86.4% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics19.0%31.2% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics73.3%88.9% (best)
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions48.8%—
Price per million tokens
Input$1.20$0.60 (best)
Output$6.00$3.60 (best)
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$2.40$1.35 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens262,144 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens65,536 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoYes
VideoNoYes
ReasoningNoYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpen
API model IDqwen3-maxqwen3.5-397b-a17b
API providers1623 (best)
ReleasedSep 23, 2025Feb 15, 2026
Knowledge cutoffApr 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 Max$24.00
  • Qwen3.5 397B-A17B$13.20
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3 Max or Qwen3.5 397B-A17B?

Qwen3.5 397B-A17B is the better all-round choice, scoring 65/100 against Qwen3 Max (50). It leads on capability, price and inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3 Max or Qwen3.5 397B-A17B?

Qwen3.5 397B-A17B is cheaper at $0.60 input / $3.60 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 $1.35 per million tokens for Qwen3.5 397B-A17B versus $2.40 for Qwen3 Max (1.8× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3.5 397B-A17B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 146.7 (#67 of 148) and Qwen3 Max 142.4 (#91 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (144.8–148.2 vs 140.0–144.6), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 86.4%, Qwen3 Max 72.6%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 31.2%, Qwen3 Max 19.0%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 88.9%, Qwen3 Max 73.3%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 Max and Qwen3.5 397B-A17B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 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 Max and Qwen3.5 397B-A17B share the same 262,144-token context window. Maximum output per response: Qwen3 Max up to 65,536, Qwen3.5 397B-A17B up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3 Max accepts text; Qwen3.5 397B-A17B accepts text, images, audio and video. Qwen3.5 397B-A17B handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3.5 397B-A17B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Qwen3 Max is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.5 397B-A17B is the newest, released Feb 15, 2026. Qwen3 Max came out Sep 23, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: 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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