# Granite 4.0 Micro vs Qwen3.5-9B

> Qwen3.5-9B is the stronger model overall, scoring 33.8 to 29.0 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.0 Micro costs 2.8× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.5-9B's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/granite-4-0-micro-vs-qwen3-5-9b
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 3

## Summary

- They share 3 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.0 Micro scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3.5-9B in 3 categories; 3 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen3.5-9B leads 46.0 to 9.9.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 2.8% for Granite 4.0 Micro and 61.7% for Qwen3.5-9B.
- Granite 4.0 Micro is cheaper at $0.017 / $0.11 per million input/output tokens, against $0.10 / $0.15 for Qwen3.5-9B.
- Qwen3.5-9B accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 131K.

## Snapshot

| | Granite 4.0 Micro | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 29.0 | 33.8 |
| Rank | 318 | 236 |
| Context | 131K | 262K |
| Input $/M | $0.017 | $0.10 |
| Output $/M | $0.11 | $0.15 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Granite 4.0 Micro: —
- Qwen3.5-9B: 35.9 (#217)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | — | 27.5% |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Granite 4.0 Micro: —
- Qwen3.5-9B: 14.5 (#151)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | — | 9.2% |

## Reasoning

- Granite 4.0 Micro: 19.2 (#265)
- Qwen3.5-9B: 23.1 (#182)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | 12% |
| CritPt | — | 0.3% |
| DTBench | — | 71.2% |
| LMCA | — | 24.5% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 139.46 |

## Math

- Granite 4.0 Micro: 12.0 (#307)
- Qwen3.5-9B: 34.8 (#192)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 2.8% | 61.7% |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | — | 48.5% |
| Omni-MATH | 20.9% | — |

## Knowledge

- Granite 4.0 Micro: 9.9 (#304)
- Qwen3.5-9B: 46.0 (#84)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 28.3% | 79% |
| MMLU-Pro | 39.5% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 30.7% | — |

## Instruction Following

- Granite 4.0 Micro: 69.9 (#169)
- Qwen3.5-9B: —

| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| IFEval | 84.9% | — |

## Writing & Preference

- Granite 4.0 Micro: 46.7 (#216)
- Qwen3.5-9B: —

| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Qwen3.5-9B |
|---|---|---|
| WildBench | 67% | — |

## FAQ

### Is Granite 4.0 Micro better than Qwen3.5-9B?

Qwen3.5-9B is the stronger model overall, scoring 33.8 to 29.0 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.0 Micro costs 2.8× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.5-9B's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Granite 4.0 Micro or Qwen3.5-9B?

Granite 4.0 Micro is cheaper. It lists at $0.017 per million input tokens and $0.11 per million output tokens; Qwen3.5-9B lists at $0.10 and $0.15.

### Which has the bigger context window?

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

### How many benchmarks do Granite 4.0 Micro and Qwen3.5-9B share?

3 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.0 Micro has 8 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.5-9B has 10.