Model comparison

Qwen3.5-9B vs Qwen3 Max

Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.7 to 33.8 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.5-9B costs 21× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified October 10, 2026. 6 shared benchmarks.

Qwen3.5-9B

Alibaba (Qwen)

33.8

Rank #236 Confirmed

Qwen3 Max

Alibaba (Qwen)

43.7

Rank #87 Confirmed

Summary

They share 6 benchmarks with published results for both. Qwen3.5-9B scores higher in 1 category and Qwen3 Max in 3 categories; 3 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in coding, where Qwen3 Max leads 43.0 to 35.9.
The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 61.7% for Qwen3.5-9B and 73.3% for Qwen3 Max.
Qwen3.5-9B is cheaper at $0.10 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $1.20 / $6 for Qwen3 Max.
Qwen3.5-9B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Qwen3.5-9B and Qwen3 Max specifications
	Qwen3.5-9B	Qwen3 Max
Provider	Alibaba (Qwen)	Alibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index	33.8	43.7
Released	2026-02-23	2025-09-23
Weights	Open	Proprietary
Context window	262K	262K
Max output	66K	66K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.10	$1.20
Output $ / M tokens	$0.15	$6
Results tracked	10	33

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Category by category

Coding Qwen3 Max leads

Qwen3.5-9B: 35.9 (#217), Qwen3 Max: 43.0 (#93)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	Qwen3.5-9B	Qwen3 Max
SciCode	27.5%	—
LMArena Coding	—	1456
ALE-Bench	—	370.45

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Qwen3.5-9B: 14.5 (#151), Qwen3 Max: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmark	Qwen3.5-9B	Qwen3 Max
Terminal-Bench	9.2%	—
Vending-Bench 2	—	71.56

Reasoning Too close to call

Qwen3.5-9B: 23.1 (#182), Qwen3 Max: 22.6 (#190)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	Qwen3.5-9B	Qwen3 Max
Chess Puzzles	12%	4%
DTBench	71.2%	82.1%
LMCA	24.5%	28.3%
Epoch Capabilities Index	139.46	142.38
Kagi LLM Benchmark	—	72.5%
NYT Connections (extended)	—	30.1%
CritPt	0.3%	—
LMArena Hard Prompts	—	1448
Mystery Game Puzzles	—	5%

Math Qwen3 Max leads

Qwen3.5-9B: 34.8 (#192), Qwen3 Max: 38.7 (#131)

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	Qwen3.5-9B	Qwen3 Max
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025	61.7%	73.3%
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)	—	18.9%
MathArena Final-Answer Competitions	48.5%	—
LMArena Math	—	1446
MATH Level 5	—	97.1%

Knowledge Qwen3 Max leads

Qwen3.5-9B: 46.0 (#84), Qwen3 Max: 48.1 (#78)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	Qwen3.5-9B	Qwen3 Max
GPQA Diamond	79%	72.6%
SimpleQA Verified	—	48.7%
LMArena Expert	—	1455

Multilingual Not comparable

Qwen3.5-9B: —, Qwen3 Max: 53.7 (#62)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	Qwen3.5-9B	Qwen3 Max
LMArena Non-English	—	1429
LMArena Chinese	—	1478
LMArena French	—	1449
LMArena German	—	1463
LMArena Japanese	—	1397
LMArena Korean	—	1399
LMArena Russian	—	1428
LMArena Spanish	—	1462

Instruction Following Not comparable

Qwen3.5-9B: —, Qwen3 Max: 74.8 (#87)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	Qwen3.5-9B	Qwen3 Max
LMArena Instruction Following	—	1419

Long Context Not comparable

Qwen3.5-9B: —, Qwen3 Max: 41.6 (#134)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	Qwen3.5-9B	Qwen3 Max
Fiction.LiveBench	—	66.7%
CL-bench	—	14.5%
LMArena Longer Query	—	1438

Writing & Preference Not comparable

Qwen3.5-9B: —, Qwen3 Max: 62.4 (#76)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	Qwen3.5-9B	Qwen3 Max
LMArena Text	—	1439
LMArena Creative Writing	—	1402
LMArena Multi-Turn	—	1446

Frequently asked questions

Is Qwen3.5-9B better than Qwen3 Max?

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.5-9B or Qwen3 Max?

Qwen3.5-9B is cheaper. It lists at $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; Qwen3 Max lists at $1.20 and $6.

Is Qwen3.5-9B or Qwen3 Max better for coding?

Qwen3 Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 43.0 versus 35.9 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Both accept 262K tokens.

How many benchmarks do Qwen3.5-9B and Qwen3 Max share?

6 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen3.5-9B has 10 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 Max has 33.