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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) vs Qwen3.5 4B

Qwen3.5 4B comes out ahead, 78 to 72 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)

    Released Oct 15, 2025

    72/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.022 / $0.215
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)
  2. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.5 4B

    Released Mar 2, 2026

    78/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.04 / $0.07
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.5 4B

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Qwen3.5 4B is our pick

Qwen3.5 4B is the better all-round choice, scoring 78/100 against Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) (72). It leads on inputs & features. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.

  • CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
  • Lowest priceQwen3.5 4BQwen3.5 4B $0.048 · Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) $0.07 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextAbout the sameQwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) 262,144 · Qwen3.5 4B 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.5 4BQwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud): Text, Images · Qwen3.5 4B: Text, Images, Video
  • Self-hostingQwen3.5 4BPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)Qwen3.5 4B
Price50%100100
Inputs & features30%5070
Context window20%3737
Overall100%72/10078/100

Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.

02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) vs Qwen3.5 4B specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.5 4BAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)——
ECI rank——
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—55.8%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.022 (best)$0.04
Output$0.215$0.07 (best)
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.07$0.048 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 1 providersMedian of 3 providers
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens262,144 tokens
Max output32,768 tokens81,920 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoYes
ReasoningNoYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpenApache-2.0
API model ID——
API providers15 (best)
ReleasedOct 15, 2025Mar 2, 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 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)$0.65
  • Qwen3.5 4B$0.54
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) or Qwen3.5 4B?

Qwen3.5 4B is the better all-round choice, scoring 78/100 against Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) (72). It leads on inputs & features. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) or Qwen3.5 4B?

Qwen3.5 4B is cheaper at $0.04 input / $0.07 output per million tokens (median across 3 API providers). Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) costs $0.022 input / $0.215 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.048 per million tokens for Qwen3.5 4B versus $0.07 for Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) (1.5× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) has not been scored yet and Qwen3.5 4B has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) and Qwen3.5 4B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) and Qwen3.5 4B share the same 262,144-token context window. Maximum output per response: Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) up to 32,768, Qwen3.5 4B up to 81,920 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) accepts text and images; Qwen3.5 4B accepts text, images and video. Qwen3.5 4B handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3.5 4B publishes its weights (Apache-2.0) and can be self-hosted; Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.5 4B is the newest, released Mar 2, 2026. Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) came out Oct 15, 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 Nov 2, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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