Model comparison
Qwen3.5-Flash vs Qwen3 Max
Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.7 to 42.5 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.5-Flash costs 14× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 28 shared benchmarks.
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 28 benchmarks with published results for both. Qwen3.5-Flash scores higher in 2 categories and Qwen3 Max in 6 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Qwen3.5-Flash leads 33.7 to 22.6.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is SimpleQA Verified: 20.3% for Qwen3.5-Flash and 48.7% for Qwen3 Max.
- Qwen3.5-Flash is cheaper at $0.10 / $0.40 per million input/output tokens, against $1.20 / $6 for Qwen3 Max.
- Qwen3.5-Flash accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 262K.
Side by side
| Qwen3.5-Flash | Qwen3 Max | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 42.5 | 43.7 |
| Released | 2026-02-23 | 2025-09-23 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Context window | 1M | 262K |
| Max output | 66K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.10 | $1.20 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.40 | $6 |
| Results tracked | 32 | 33 |
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Category by category
Coding Qwen3 Max leads
Qwen3.5-Flash: 34.2 (#242), Qwen3 Max: 43.0 (#93)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-Flash | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1412 | 1456 |
| ALE-Bench | 221.8 | 370.45 |
| LMArena WebDev | 1244 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Qwen3.5-Flash: —, Qwen3 Max: —
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-Flash | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Vending-Bench 2 | 462.69 | 71.56 |
Reasoning Qwen3.5-Flash leads
Qwen3.5-Flash: 33.7 (#72), Qwen3 Max: 22.6 (#190)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-Flash | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Chess Puzzles | 21% | 4% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1403 | 1448 |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 20% | 5% |
| DTBench | 82.9% | 82.1% |
| LMCA | 29.1% | 28.3% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 143.98 | 142.38 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 72.5% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 30.1% |
Math Qwen3 Max leads
Qwen3.5-Flash: 37.4 (#158), Qwen3 Max: 38.7 (#131)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-Flash | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 18.2% | 18.9% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 84.4% | 73.3% |
| LMArena Math | 1407 | 1446 |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 97.1% |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 6.2% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | 0% | — |
Knowledge Qwen3 Max leads
Qwen3.5-Flash: 43.2 (#93), Qwen3 Max: 48.1 (#78)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-Flash | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 82.3% | 72.6% |
| SimpleQA Verified | 20.3% | 48.7% |
| LMArena Expert | 1407 | 1455 |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 10.5% | — |
Multilingual Qwen3 Max leads
Qwen3.5-Flash: 50.5 (#121), Qwen3 Max: 53.7 (#62)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-Flash | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1385 | 1429 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1446 | 1478 |
| LMArena French | 1412 | 1449 |
| LMArena German | 1390 | 1463 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1368 | 1397 |
| LMArena Korean | 1344 | 1399 |
| LMArena Russian | 1379 | 1428 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1400 | 1462 |
Instruction Following Qwen3 Max leads
Qwen3.5-Flash: 72.6 (#139), Qwen3 Max: 74.8 (#87)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-Flash | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1374 | 1419 |
Long Context Too close to call
Qwen3.5-Flash: 42.4 (#124), Qwen3 Max: 41.6 (#134)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-Flash | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1392 | 1438 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | — | 66.7% |
| CL-bench | — | 14.5% |
Writing & Preference Qwen3 Max leads
Qwen3.5-Flash: 57.9 (#122), Qwen3 Max: 62.4 (#76)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-Flash | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1397 | 1439 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1343 | 1402 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1393 | 1446 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Qwen3.5-Flash better than Qwen3 Max?
Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.7 to 42.5 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.5-Flash costs 14× 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-Flash or Qwen3 Max?
Qwen3.5-Flash is cheaper. It lists at $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.40 per million output tokens; Qwen3 Max lists at $1.20 and $6.
Is Qwen3.5-Flash or Qwen3 Max better for coding?
Qwen3 Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 43.0 versus 34.2 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3.5-Flash does, with 1M tokens against 262K.
How many benchmarks do Qwen3.5-Flash and Qwen3 Max share?
28 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen3.5-Flash has 32 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 Max has 33.