Model comparison
Qwen Plus vs Qwen3.5-9B
Qwen Plus is the stronger model overall, scoring 37.1 to 33.8 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.5-9B costs 5.3× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen Plus's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 4 shared benchmarks.
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 4 benchmarks with published results for both. Qwen Plus scores higher in 2 categories and Qwen3.5-9B in 2 categories; 4 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen3.5-9B leads 46.0 to 27.4.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 17.8% for Qwen Plus and 61.7% for Qwen3.5-9B.
- Qwen3.5-9B is cheaper at $0.10 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $0.40 / $1.20 for Qwen Plus.
- Qwen Plus accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 262K.
- Qwen3.5-9B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Qwen Plus | Qwen3.5-9B | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 37.1 | 33.8 |
| Released | 2024-01-25 | 2026-02-23 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |
| Context window | 1M | 262K |
| Max output | 33K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.40 | $0.10 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $1.20 | $0.15 |
| Results tracked | 20 | 10 |
Sponsored placements are available on pages like this one. Advertise on Noometry
Category by category
Coding Qwen Plus leads
Qwen Plus: 38.9 (#167), Qwen3.5-9B: 35.9 (#217)
| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | — | 27.5% |
| LMArena Coding | 1328 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Qwen Plus: —, Qwen3.5-9B: 14.5 (#151)
| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | — | 9.2% |
Reasoning Qwen Plus leads
Qwen Plus: 28.4 (#107), Qwen3.5-9B: 23.1 (#182)
| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| DTBench | 81.1% | 71.2% |
| LMCA | 24% | 24.5% |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 63.3% | — |
| CritPt | — | 0.3% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 12% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1317 | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 139.46 |
Math Qwen3.5-9B leads
Qwen Plus: 23.3 (#271), Qwen3.5-9B: 34.8 (#192)
| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 17.8% | 61.7% |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | — | 48.5% |
| LMArena Math | 1326 | — |
| MATH Level 5 | 65.3% | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 1.7% | — |
Knowledge Qwen3.5-9B leads
Qwen Plus: 27.4 (#251), Qwen3.5-9B: 46.0 (#84)
| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 48.1% | 79% |
| LMArena Expert | 1328 | — |
Multilingual Not comparable
Qwen Plus: 45.1 (#175), Qwen3.5-9B: —
| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1310 | — |
| LMArena Chinese | 1347 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1251 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1323 | — |
Instruction Following Not comparable
Qwen Plus: 68.8 (#181), Qwen3.5-9B: —
| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1303 | — |
Long Context Not comparable
Qwen Plus: 40.3 (#158), Qwen3.5-9B: —
| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1324 | — |
Writing & Preference Not comparable
Qwen Plus: 52.2 (#176), Qwen3.5-9B: —
| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1326 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1293 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1336 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Qwen Plus better than Qwen3.5-9B?
Qwen Plus is the stronger model overall, scoring 37.1 to 33.8 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.5-9B costs 5.3× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen Plus's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Qwen Plus 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; Qwen Plus lists at $0.40 and $1.20.
Is Qwen Plus or Qwen3.5-9B better for coding?
Qwen Plus scores higher on coding benchmarks: 38.9 versus 35.9 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen Plus does, with 1M tokens against 262K.
How many benchmarks do Qwen Plus and Qwen3.5-9B share?
4 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen Plus has 20 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.5-9B has 10.