Model comparison

Qwen3.5-9B vs Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B

Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.2 to 33.8 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.5-9B costs 11× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified October 10, 2026. 0 shared benchmarks.

Qwen3.5-9B

Alibaba (Qwen)

33.8

Rank #236 Confirmed

Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B

Alibaba (Qwen)

43.2

Rank #95 Confirmed

Summary

The widest gap is in coding, where Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B leads 42.4 to 35.9.
Qwen3.5-9B is cheaper at $0.10 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $0.70 / $2.80 for Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B.
Qwen3.5-9B accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 131K.

Side by side

Qwen3.5-9B and Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B specifications
	Qwen3.5-9B	Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B
Provider	Alibaba (Qwen)	Alibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index	33.8	43.2
Released	2026-02-23	2025-04
Weights	Open	Open
Context window	262K	131K
Max output	66K	33K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.10	$0.70
Output $ / M tokens	$0.15	$2.80
Results tracked	10	18

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Category by category

Coding Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B leads

Qwen3.5-9B: 35.9 (#217), Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B: 42.4 (#100)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	Qwen3.5-9B	Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B
SciCode	27.5%	—
LMArena Coding	—	1439

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Qwen3.5-9B: 14.5 (#151), Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmark	Qwen3.5-9B	Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B
Terminal-Bench	9.2%	—

Reasoning Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B leads

Qwen3.5-9B: 23.1 (#182), Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B: 29.3 (#92)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	Qwen3.5-9B	Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B
CritPt	0.3%	—
Chess Puzzles	12%	—
LMArena Hard Prompts	—	1428
DTBench	71.2%	—
LMCA	24.5%	—
Epoch Capabilities Index	139.46	—

Math Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B leads

Qwen3.5-9B: 34.8 (#192), Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B: 39.0 (#118)

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	Qwen3.5-9B	Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B
MathArena Final-Answer Competitions	48.5%	—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025	61.7%	—
LMArena Math	—	1426

Knowledge Qwen3.5-9B leads

Qwen3.5-9B: 46.0 (#84), Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B: 40.3 (#121)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	Qwen3.5-9B	Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B
GPQA Diamond	79%	—
LMArena Expert	—	1442

Multimodal Not comparable

Qwen3.5-9B: —, Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B: 39.8 (#55)

Multimodal benchmarks
Benchmark	Qwen3.5-9B	Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B
LMArena Vision	—	1247

Multilingual Not comparable

Qwen3.5-9B: —, Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B: 51.9 (#97)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	Qwen3.5-9B	Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B
LMArena Non-English	—	1405
LMArena Chinese	—	1463
LMArena French	—	1452
LMArena German	—	1424
LMArena Japanese	—	1385
LMArena Korean	—	1394
LMArena Russian	—	1408
LMArena Spanish	—	1428

Instruction Following Not comparable

Qwen3.5-9B: —, Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B: 74.2 (#101)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	Qwen3.5-9B	Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B
LMArena Instruction Following	—	1406

Long Context Not comparable

Qwen3.5-9B: —, Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B: 43.4 (#98)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	Qwen3.5-9B	Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B
LMArena Longer Query	—	1420

Writing & Preference Not comparable

Qwen3.5-9B: —, Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B: 60.2 (#99)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	Qwen3.5-9B	Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B
LMArena Text	—	1420
LMArena Creative Writing	—	1366
LMArena Multi-Turn	—	1428

Frequently asked questions

Is Qwen3.5-9B better than Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B?

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.5-9B or Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B?

Qwen3.5-9B is cheaper. It lists at $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B lists at $0.70 and $2.80.

Is Qwen3.5-9B or Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B better for coding?

Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 35.9 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3.5-9B does, with 262K tokens against 131K.

How many benchmarks do Qwen3.5-9B and Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B share?

0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen3.5-9B has 10 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B has 18.