Model comparison

Qwen Max vs Qwen3.5 27B

Qwen3.5 27B is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.9 to 34.7 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.

Qwen Max Alibaba (Qwen)

34.7

Rank #230 Confirmed

Qwen3.5 27B Alibaba (Qwen)

41.9

Rank #127 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Qwen Max scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3.5 27B in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where Qwen3.5 27B leads 38.8 to 22.3.
  • Qwen3.5 27B is cheaper at $0.30 / $2.40 per million input/output tokens, against $1.60 / $6.40 for Qwen Max.
  • Qwen3.5 27B accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 33K.
  • Qwen3.5 27B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Qwen Max and Qwen3.5 27B specifications
Qwen MaxQwen3.5 27B
ProviderAlibaba (Qwen)Alibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index34.741.9
Released2024-04-032026-02-23
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window33K262K
Max output8K66K
Input $ / M tokens$1.60$0.30
Output $ / M tokens$6.40$2.40
Results tracked2328

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Category by category

Coding Qwen3.5 27B leads

Qwen Max: 30.7 (#292), Qwen3.5 27B: 38.9 (#168)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkQwen MaxQwen3.5 27B
LMArena Coding12881427
Aider Polyglot21.8%—
LMArena WebDev—1358
WeirdML—39.5%
ALE-Bench—349.45

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Qwen Max: —, Qwen3.5 27B: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkQwen MaxQwen3.5 27B
Vending-Bench 2—201.98

Reasoning Qwen3.5 27B leads

Qwen Max: 25.1 (#151), Qwen3.5 27B: 27.5 (#117)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkQwen MaxQwen3.5 27B
LMArena Hard Prompts12691414
NYT Connections (extended)—47.9%
Thematic Generalization—45.5%
DTBench—82.4%
LMCA—34%

Math Qwen3.5 27B leads

Qwen Max: 22.3 (#276), Qwen3.5 27B: 38.8 (#127)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkQwen MaxQwen3.5 27B
LMArena Math12751429
MathArena Final-Answer Competitions—56.7%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202516.1%—
MATH Level 567.2%—
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)1%—

Knowledge Qwen3.5 27B leads

Qwen Max: 30.3 (#228), Qwen3.5 27B: 38.0 (#150)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkQwen MaxQwen3.5 27B
LMArena Expert12481428
GPQA Diamond56.1%—
Vectara Hallucination Rate—12.1%

Multimodal Not comparable

Qwen Max: —, Qwen3.5 27B: 39.4 (#59)

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkQwen MaxQwen3.5 27B
LMArena Vision—1241

Multilingual Qwen3.5 27B leads

Qwen Max: 41.8 (#202), Qwen3.5 27B: 50.8 (#115)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkQwen MaxQwen3.5 27B
LMArena Non-English12631390
LMArena Chinese12541478
LMArena French13301410
LMArena German12541393
LMArena Japanese12051345
LMArena Korean11421358
LMArena Russian12741390
LMArena Spanish12901407

Instruction Following Qwen3.5 27B leads

Qwen Max: 66.5 (#208), Qwen3.5 27B: 73.5 (#119)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkQwen MaxQwen3.5 27B
LMArena Instruction Following12621393

Long Context Qwen3.5 27B leads

Qwen Max: 39.4 (#180), Qwen3.5 27B: 43.1 (#106)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkQwen MaxQwen3.5 27B
LMArena Longer Query12881413
Fiction.LiveBench66.7%—

Writing & Preference Qwen3.5 27B leads

Qwen Max: 47.8 (#205), Qwen3.5 27B: 59.3 (#111)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkQwen MaxQwen3.5 27B
LMArena Text12821409
LMArena Creative Writing12481362
LMArena Multi-Turn12771410

Frequently asked questions

Is Qwen Max better than Qwen3.5 27B?

Qwen3.5 27B is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.9 to 34.7 on the Noometry Index.

Which is cheaper, Qwen Max or Qwen3.5 27B?

Qwen3.5 27B is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $2.40 per million output tokens; Qwen Max lists at $1.60 and $6.40.

Is Qwen Max or Qwen3.5 27B better for coding?

Qwen3.5 27B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 38.9 versus 30.7 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3.5 27B does, with 262K tokens against 33K.

How many benchmarks do Qwen Max and Qwen3.5 27B share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen Max has 23 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.5 27B has 28.

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