Model comparison
Granite 4.0 Micro vs Qwen3.5-9B
Qwen3.5-9B is the stronger model overall, scoring 33.8 to 29.0 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.0 Micro costs 2.8× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.5-9B's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 3 shared benchmarks.
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 3 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.0 Micro scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3.5-9B in 3 categories; 3 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen3.5-9B leads 46.0 to 9.9.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 2.8% for Granite 4.0 Micro and 61.7% for Qwen3.5-9B.
- Granite 4.0 Micro is cheaper at $0.017 / $0.11 per million input/output tokens, against $0.10 / $0.15 for Qwen3.5-9B.
- Qwen3.5-9B accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 131K.
Side by side
| Granite 4.0 Micro | Qwen3.5-9B | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 29.0 | 33.8 |
| Released | 2025-10-02 | 2026-02-23 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 131K | 262K |
| Max output | 118K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.017 | $0.10 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.11 | $0.15 |
| Results tracked | 8 | 10 |
Sponsored placements are available on pages like this one. Advertise on Noometry
Category by category
Coding Not comparable
Granite 4.0 Micro: —, Qwen3.5-9B: 35.9 (#217)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | — | 27.5% |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Granite 4.0 Micro: —, Qwen3.5-9B: 14.5 (#151)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | — | 9.2% |
Reasoning Qwen3.5-9B leads
Granite 4.0 Micro: 19.2 (#265), Qwen3.5-9B: 23.1 (#182)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | 12% |
| CritPt | — | 0.3% |
| DTBench | — | 71.2% |
| LMCA | — | 24.5% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 139.46 |
Math Qwen3.5-9B leads
Granite 4.0 Micro: 12.0 (#307), Qwen3.5-9B: 34.8 (#192)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 2.8% | 61.7% |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | — | 48.5% |
| Omni-MATH | 20.9% | — |
Knowledge Qwen3.5-9B leads
Granite 4.0 Micro: 9.9 (#304), Qwen3.5-9B: 46.0 (#84)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 28.3% | 79% |
| MMLU-Pro | 39.5% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 30.7% | — |
Instruction Following Not comparable
Granite 4.0 Micro: 69.9 (#169), Qwen3.5-9B: —
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| IFEval | 84.9% | — |
Writing & Preference Not comparable
Granite 4.0 Micro: 46.7 (#216), Qwen3.5-9B: —
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| WildBench | 67% | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Granite 4.0 Micro better than Qwen3.5-9B?
Qwen3.5-9B is the stronger model overall, scoring 33.8 to 29.0 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.0 Micro costs 2.8× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.5-9B's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Granite 4.0 Micro or Qwen3.5-9B?
Granite 4.0 Micro is cheaper. It lists at $0.017 per million input tokens and $0.11 per million output tokens; Qwen3.5-9B lists at $0.10 and $0.15.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3.5-9B does, with 262K tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks do Granite 4.0 Micro and Qwen3.5-9B share?
3 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.0 Micro has 8 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.5-9B has 10.