Noometry

Model comparison

Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Qwen3.5-9B

Gemini 3.8 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 59.5 to 33.3 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.5-9B costs 13× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.8 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 8 shared benchmarks.

Gemini 3.8 Flash Google

59.5

Rank #13 Confirmed

Qwen3.5-9B Alibaba (Qwen)

33.3

Rank #235 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 8 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.8 Flash scores higher in 5 categories and Qwen3.5-9B in 0 categories; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in reasoning, where Gemini 3.8 Flash leads 64.7 to 22.5.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is Chess Puzzles: 61% for Gemini 3.8 Flash and 12% for Qwen3.5-9B.
  • Qwen3.5-9B is cheaper at $0.10 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $0.75 / $3.75 for Gemini 3.8 Flash.
  • Gemini 3.8 Flash accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 262K.
  • Qwen3.5-9B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Gemini 3.8 FlashQwen3.5-9B
ProviderGoogleAlibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index59.533.3
Released2026-09-022026-02-23
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M262K
Max output66K66K
Input $ / M tokens$0.75$0.10
Output $ / M tokens$3.75$0.15
Results tracked4610

Sponsored placements are available on pages like this one. Advertise on Noometry

Category by category

Coding Gemini 3.8 Flash leads

Gemini 3.8 Flash: 56.4 (#17), Qwen3.5-9B: 35.3 (#213)

BenchmarkGemini 3.8 FlashQwen3.5-9B
SciCode56.6%27.5%
DeepSWE73.8%—
FrontierCode41.2%—
CursorBench39.6%—
LMArena WebDev1581—
FrontierSWE19.6%—
LMArena Coding1512—
ALE-Bench1,270—

Agentic & Tool Use Gemini 3.8 Flash leads

Gemini 3.8 Flash: 40.3 (#22), Qwen3.5-9B: 14.4 (#143)

BenchmarkGemini 3.8 FlashQwen3.5-9B
Terminal-Bench—9.2%
APEX-Agents64.3%—
GDP.pdf23.4%—
Vending-Bench 25,094—

Reasoning Gemini 3.8 Flash leads

Gemini 3.8 Flash: 64.7 (#13), Qwen3.5-9B: 22.5 (#178)

BenchmarkGemini 3.8 FlashQwen3.5-9B
CritPt18.3%0.3%
Chess Puzzles61%12%
DTBench95.7%71.2%
LMCA52.9%24.5%
Epoch Capabilities Index157.13139.45
NYT Connections (extended)97.4%—
LMArena Hard Prompts1506—
Mystery Game Puzzles47%—
Surface Evolver Bench76.9%—

Math Gemini 3.8 Flash leads

Gemini 3.8 Flash: 65.2 (#22), Qwen3.5-9B: 33.5 (#174)

BenchmarkGemini 3.8 FlashQwen3.5-9B
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202598.9%61.7%
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)68.4%—
FrontierMath Tier 422%—
MathArena Final-Answer Competitions—48.5%
ProofBench48%—
LMArena Math1528—

Knowledge Gemini 3.8 Flash leads

Gemini 3.8 Flash: 74.9 (#2), Qwen3.5-9B: 46.0 (#77)

BenchmarkGemini 3.8 FlashQwen3.5-9B
GPQA Diamond95.4%79%
Humanity's Last Exam44.5%—
SimpleQA Verified69.7%—
LMArena Expert1529—

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemini 3.8 Flash: 40.9 (#33), Qwen3.5-9B: —

BenchmarkGemini 3.8 FlashQwen3.5-9B
LMArena Vision1312—
Blueprint-Bench 238.6%—
Furniture Assembly31.7%—

Multilingual Not comparable

Gemini 3.8 Flash: 57.9 (#5), Qwen3.5-9B: —

BenchmarkGemini 3.8 FlashQwen3.5-9B
LMArena Non-English1486—
LMArena Chinese1547—
LMArena French1502—
LMArena German1470—
LMArena Japanese1505—
LMArena Korean1479—
LMArena Russian1507—
LMArena Spanish1492—

Instruction Following Not comparable

Gemini 3.8 Flash: 78.2 (#11), Qwen3.5-9B: —

BenchmarkGemini 3.8 FlashQwen3.5-9B
LMArena Instruction Following1489—

Long Context Not comparable

Gemini 3.8 Flash: 46.2 (#23), Qwen3.5-9B: —

BenchmarkGemini 3.8 FlashQwen3.5-9B
LMArena Longer Query1506—

Writing & Preference Not comparable

Gemini 3.8 Flash: 72.1 (#16), Qwen3.5-9B: —

BenchmarkGemini 3.8 FlashQwen3.5-9B
LMArena Text1494—
LMArena Creative Writing1485—
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1748—
LMArena Multi-Turn1503—

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemini 3.8 Flash better than Qwen3.5-9B?

Gemini 3.8 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 59.5 to 33.3 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.5-9B costs 13× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Gemini 3.8 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.8 Flash or Qwen3.5-9B?

Qwen3.5-9B is cheaper. It lists at $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; Gemini 3.8 Flash lists at $0.75 and $3.75.

Is Gemini 3.8 Flash or Qwen3.5-9B better for coding?

Gemini 3.8 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 56.4 versus 35.3 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemini 3.8 Flash does, with 1.05M tokens against 262K.

How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.8 Flash and Qwen3.5-9B share?

8 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.8 Flash has 46 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.5-9B has 10.

Related comparisons

Go deeper