Noometry

Model comparison

Qwen3.5 27B vs Qwen3 Max

Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 41.4 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.5 27B costs 2.9× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 22 shared benchmarks.

Qwen3.5 27B Alibaba (Qwen)

41.4

Rank #127 Confirmed

Qwen3 Max Alibaba (Qwen)

43.5

Rank #82 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 22 benchmarks with published results for both. Qwen3.5 27B scores higher in 2 categories and Qwen3 Max in 6 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen3 Max leads 48.1 to 37.4.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is NYT Connections (extended): 47.9% for Qwen3.5 27B and 30.1% for Qwen3 Max.
  • Qwen3.5 27B is cheaper at $0.30 / $2.40 per million input/output tokens, against $1.20 / $6 for Qwen3 Max.
  • Qwen3.5 27B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Qwen3.5 27BQwen3 Max
ProviderAlibaba (Qwen)Alibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index41.443.5
Released2026-02-232025-09-23
WeightsOpenProprietary
Context window262K262K
Max output66K66K
Input $ / M tokens$0.30$1.20
Output $ / M tokens$2.40$6
Results tracked2833

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Category by category

Coding Qwen3 Max leads

Qwen3.5 27B: 38.6 (#159), Qwen3 Max: 42.4 (#93)

BenchmarkQwen3.5 27BQwen3 Max
LMArena Coding14271456
ALE-Bench349.45370.45
LMArena WebDev1357—
WeirdML39.5%—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Qwen3.5 27B: —, Qwen3 Max: —

BenchmarkQwen3.5 27BQwen3 Max
Vending-Bench 2201.9871.56

Reasoning Qwen3.5 27B leads

Qwen3.5 27B: 26.6 (#116), Qwen3 Max: 22.0 (#186)

BenchmarkQwen3.5 27BQwen3 Max
NYT Connections (extended)47.9%30.1%
LMArena Hard Prompts14141448
DTBench82.4%82.1%
LMCA34%28.3%
Kagi LLM Benchmark—72.5%
Chess Puzzles—4%
Thematic Generalization45.5%—
Mystery Game Puzzles—5%
Epoch Capabilities Index—142.41

Math Too close to call

Qwen3.5 27B: 36.8 (#103), Qwen3 Max: 37.6 (#94)

BenchmarkQwen3.5 27BQwen3 Max
LMArena Math14281447
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)—18.9%
MathArena Final-Answer Competitions56.7%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025—73.3%
MATH Level 5—97.1%

Knowledge Qwen3 Max leads

Qwen3.5 27B: 37.4 (#149), Qwen3 Max: 48.1 (#72)

BenchmarkQwen3.5 27BQwen3 Max
LMArena Expert14281457
GPQA Diamond—72.6%
SimpleQA Verified—48.7%
Vectara Hallucination Rate12.1%—

Multimodal Not comparable

Qwen3.5 27B: 38.7 (#56), Qwen3 Max: —

BenchmarkQwen3.5 27BQwen3 Max
LMArena Vision1240—

Multilingual Qwen3 Max leads

Qwen3.5 27B: 51.0 (#112), Qwen3 Max: 53.9 (#58)

BenchmarkQwen3.5 27BQwen3 Max
LMArena Non-English13901429
LMArena Chinese14781479
LMArena French14091450
LMArena German13931463
LMArena Japanese13451399
LMArena Korean13591397
LMArena Russian13891428
LMArena Spanish14081463

Instruction Following Qwen3 Max leads

Qwen3.5 27B: 73.7 (#114), Qwen3 Max: 75.0 (#81)

BenchmarkQwen3.5 27BQwen3 Max
LMArena Instruction Following13931420

Long Context Qwen3.5 27B leads

Qwen3.5 27B: 43.1 (#103), Qwen3 Max: 41.6 (#129)

BenchmarkQwen3.5 27BQwen3 Max
LMArena Longer Query14131439
Fiction.LiveBench—66.7%
CL-bench—14.5%

Writing & Preference Qwen3 Max leads

Qwen3.5 27B: 59.5 (#106), Qwen3 Max: 62.6 (#72)

BenchmarkQwen3.5 27BQwen3 Max
LMArena Text14091439
LMArena Creative Writing13621401
LMArena Multi-Turn14101446

Frequently asked questions

Is Qwen3.5 27B better than Qwen3 Max?

Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 41.4 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.5 27B costs 2.9× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

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

Qwen3.5 27B is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $2.40 per million output tokens; Qwen3 Max lists at $1.20 and $6.

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

Qwen3 Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 38.6 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Both accept 262K tokens.

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

22 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen3.5 27B has 28 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 Max has 33.

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