# 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.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/qwen3-5-9b-vs-qwen3-max
- Last updated: 2026-10-12
- Shared benchmarks: 6

## 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.

## Snapshot

| | Qwen3.5-9B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 33.8 | 43.7 |
| Rank | 236 | 87 |
| Context | 262K | 262K |
| Input $/M | $0.10 | $1.20 |
| Output $/M | $0.15 | $6 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

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

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

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Qwen3.5-9B: 14.5 (#151)
- Qwen3 Max: —

| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-9B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | 9.2% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 71.56 |

## Reasoning

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

| 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

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

| 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

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

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

## Multilingual

- Qwen3.5-9B: —
- Qwen3 Max: 53.7 (#62)

| 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

- Qwen3.5-9B: —
- Qwen3 Max: 74.8 (#87)

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

## Long Context

- Qwen3.5-9B: —
- Qwen3 Max: 41.6 (#134)

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

## Writing & Preference

- Qwen3.5-9B: —
- Qwen3 Max: 62.4 (#76)

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

## FAQ

### Is Qwen3.5-9B better than 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.

### 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.