# 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.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/qwen3-5-9b-vs-qwen3-vl-235b-a22b
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 0

## 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.

## Snapshot

| | Qwen3.5-9B | Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 33.8 | 43.2 |
| Rank | 236 | 95 |
| Context | 262K | 131K |
| Input $/M | $0.10 | $0.70 |
| Output $/M | $0.15 | $2.80 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

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

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

## Agentic & Tool Use

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

| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-9B | Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | 9.2% | — |

## Reasoning

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

| 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

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

| 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: 46.0 (#84)
- Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B: 40.3 (#121)

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

## Multimodal

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

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

## Multilingual

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

| 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

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

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

## Long Context

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

| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-9B | Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1420 |

## Writing & Preference

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

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

## FAQ

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

### 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.