Model comparison
Qwen3.5-9B vs Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct
Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct is the stronger model overall, scoring 37.7 to 33.3 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.5-9B costs 27× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 1 shared benchmarks.
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 1 benchmark with published results for both. Qwen3.5-9B scores higher in 1 category and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct in 4 categories; 4 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen3.5-9B leads 46.0 to 36.4.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is Terminal-Bench: 9.2% for Qwen3.5-9B and 27.2% for Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct.
- Qwen3.5-9B is cheaper at $0.10 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $1.50 / $7.50 for Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct.
Side by side
| Qwen3.5-9B | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 33.3 | 37.7 |
| Released | 2026-02-23 | 2025-04 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 262K | 262K |
| Max output | 66K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.10 | $1.50 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.15 | $7.50 |
| Results tracked | 10 | 25 |
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Category by category
Coding Too close to call
Qwen3.5-9B: 35.3 (#213), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 36.2 (#199)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-9B | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | — | 55.4% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1275 |
| SciCode | 27.5% | — |
| GSO | — | 4.9% |
| WeirdML | — | 41.2% |
| LMArena Coding | — | 1413 |
| ALE-Bench | — | 461.45 |
| AlgoTune | — | 1.44 |
Agentic & Tool Use Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct leads
Qwen3.5-9B: 14.4 (#143), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 23.7 (#116)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-9B | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | 9.2% | 27.2% |
Reasoning Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct leads
Qwen3.5-9B: 22.5 (#178), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 24.7 (#141)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-9B | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 49.5% |
| CritPt | 0.3% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 12% | — |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | — | 1372 |
| DTBench | 71.2% | — |
| LMCA | 24.5% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 139.45 | — |
Math Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct leads
Qwen3.5-9B: 33.5 (#174), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 34.9 (#151)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-9B | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | 48.5% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 61.7% | — |
| LMArena Math | — | 1364 |
Knowledge Qwen3.5-9B leads
Qwen3.5-9B: 46.0 (#77), Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 36.4 (#159)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-9B | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 79% | — |
| LMArena Expert | — | 1337 |
Multilingual Not comparable
Qwen3.5-9B: —, Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 47.8 (#143)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-9B | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | — | 1345 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1356 |
| LMArena French | — | 1394 |
| LMArena German | — | 1324 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1309 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1307 |
| LMArena Russian | — | 1367 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1360 |
Instruction Following Not comparable
Qwen3.5-9B: —, Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 71.8 (#142)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-9B | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | — | 1356 |
Long Context Not comparable
Qwen3.5-9B: —, Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 42.0 (#126)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-9B | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1379 |
Writing & Preference Not comparable
Qwen3.5-9B: —, Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 55.5 (#142)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-9B | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | — | 1356 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | — | 1333 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | — | 1365 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Qwen3.5-9B better than Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct?
Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct is the stronger model overall, scoring 37.7 to 33.3 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.5-9B costs 27× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3.5-9B or Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct?
Qwen3.5-9B is cheaper. It lists at $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct lists at $1.50 and $7.50.
Is Qwen3.5-9B or Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct better for coding?
They score almost the same on coding (35.3 vs 36.2); test both on your own repository before choosing.
Which has the bigger context window?
Both accept 262K tokens.
How many benchmarks do Qwen3.5-9B and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct share?
1 benchmark has published results for both models. Qwen3.5-9B has 10 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct has 25.