Model Comparison

K-EXAONE-236B-A23B vs Qwen3.5-9BWhich is better in 2026?

K-EXAONE-236B-A23B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: K-EXAONE-236B-A23B vs Qwen3.5-9B — which is better?

K-EXAONE-236B-A23B (by LG AI Research) and Qwen3.5-9B (by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team) are two of the AI models people compare most. Here is how they stack up on benchmarks, price and capabilities, and which one to pick in 2026.

K-EXAONE-236B-A23B outperforms in 4 benchmarks (IFBench, LiveCodeBench v6, MMLU-Pro, MMMLU), while Qwen3.5-9B is better at 1 benchmark (t2-bench). K-EXAONE-236B-A23B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose K-EXAONE-236B-A23B if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 4 of 5 shared benchmarks

Choose Qwen3.5-9B if…

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Mar 2026
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

5 benchmarks

K-EXAONE-236B-A23B outperforms in 4 benchmarks (IFBench, LiveCodeBench v6, MMLU-Pro, MMMLU), while Qwen3.5-9B is better at 1 benchmark (t2-bench).

K-EXAONE-236B-A23B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Tue Jul 21 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

227.0B diff

K-EXAONE-236B-A23B has 227.0B more parameters than Qwen3.5-9B, making it 2522.2% larger.

LG AI Research
K-EXAONE-236B-A23B
236.0Bparameters
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3.5-9B
9.0Bparameters
236.0B
K-EXAONE-236B-A23B
9.0B
Qwen3.5-9B

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only K-EXAONE-236B-A23B specifies input context (32,768 tokens). Only K-EXAONE-236B-A23B specifies output context (32,768 tokens).

LG AI Research
K-EXAONE-236B-A23B
Input32,768 tokens
Output32,768 tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3.5-9B
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Tue Jul 21 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Qwen3.5-9B supports multimodal inputs, whereas K-EXAONE-236B-A23B does not.

Qwen3.5-9B can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

K-EXAONE-236B-A23B

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Qwen3.5-9B

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

K-EXAONE-236B-A23B is licensed under a proprietary license, while Qwen3.5-9B uses Apache 2.0.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

K-EXAONE-236B-A23B

Proprietary

Closed source

Qwen3.5-9B

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

K-EXAONE-236B-A23B was released on 2025-12-31, while Qwen3.5-9B was released on 2026-03-02.

Qwen3.5-9B is 2 months newer than K-EXAONE-236B-A23B.

K-EXAONE-236B-A23B

Dec 31, 2025

6 months ago

Qwen3.5-9B

Mar 2, 2026

4 months ago

2mo newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

K-EXAONE-236B-A23B has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2025-10-01, while Qwen3.5-9B's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm K-EXAONE-236B-A23B's training data extends to 2025-10-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Qwen3.5-9B's cutoff date.

K-EXAONE-236B-A23B

Oct 2025

Qwen3.5-9B

—

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

LG AI Research
Larger context window (32,768 tokens)
Higher IFBench score (67.3% vs 64.5%)
Higher LiveCodeBench v6 score (80.7% vs 65.6%)
Higher MMLU-Pro score (83.8% vs 82.5%)
Higher MMMLU score (85.7% vs 81.2%)
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Qwen3.5-9B

View details

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Supports multimodal inputs
Has open weights
Higher t2-bench score (79.1% vs 73.2%)

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against K-EXAONE-236B-A23B and Qwen3.5-9B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

K-EXAONE-236B-A23B
✓ Preferred
Qwen3.5-9B
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
LG AI Research
K-EXAONE-236B-A23B
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3.5-9B

FAQ

Common questions about K-EXAONE-236B-A23B vs Qwen3.5-9B.

Which is better, K-EXAONE-236B-A23B or Qwen3.5-9B?

K-EXAONE-236B-A23B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. K-EXAONE-236B-A23B is made by LG AI Research and Qwen3.5-9B is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does K-EXAONE-236B-A23B compare to Qwen3.5-9B in benchmarks?

K-EXAONE-236B-A23B scores AIME 2025: 92.8%, MMMLU: 85.7%, MMLU-Pro: 83.8%, LiveCodeBench v6: 80.7%, t2-bench: 73.2%. Qwen3.5-9B scores IFEval: 91.5%, MMLU-Redux: 91.1%, C-Eval: 88.2%, MAXIFE: 83.4%, Global PIQA: 83.2%.

What are the context window sizes for K-EXAONE-236B-A23B and Qwen3.5-9B?

K-EXAONE-236B-A23B supports 33K tokens and Qwen3.5-9B supports an unknown number of tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between K-EXAONE-236B-A23B and Qwen3.5-9B?

Key differences include multimodal support (no vs yes), licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes K-EXAONE-236B-A23B and Qwen3.5-9B?

K-EXAONE-236B-A23B is developed by LG AI Research and Qwen3.5-9B is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.

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