Qwen3 Max vs Qwen3.5-35B-A3B
Qwen3.5-35B-A3B leads the LLM Stats Score 30.9 to 21.7. Qwen3.5-35B-A3B is 4.6x cheaper per token.
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Qwen3.5-35B-A3B leads the overall LLM Stats Score 30.9 to 21.7, ranking #114 overall.
In the 5 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Qwen3.5-35B-A3B wins 3; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
On price, Qwen3.5-35B-A3B is roughly 4.6x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Qwen3.5-35B-A3B also accepts a larger context window (262,144 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Qwen3 Max
- you want predictable pricing at $0.50/M input and $5.00/M output
Choose Qwen3.5-35B-A3B
- overall performance matters — it scores 30.9 and ranks #114 on LLM Stats
- your work emphasizes reasoning — it leads those capability indexes
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 3 of 5 exact shared results
- cost matters — it's about 4.6x cheaper per token
- you process long inputs — it offers a 262,144 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Feb 2026
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
6 reported for Qwen3 Max · 81 for Qwen3.5-35B-A3B
Qwen3 Max outperforms in 2 benchmarks (SuperGPQA, SWE-Bench Verified), while Qwen3.5-35B-A3B is better at 3 benchmarks (GPQA, LiveCodeBench v6, t2-bench).
Qwen3.5-35B-A3B has a slight edge in benchmark performance.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Qwen3 Max ($0.50/1M tokens) is 3.6x more expensive than Qwen3.5-35B-A3B ($0.14/1M tokens).
For output processing, Qwen3 Max ($5.00/1M tokens) is 5.0x more expensive than Qwen3.5-35B-A3B ($1.00/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Qwen3 Max is more expensive than Qwen3.5-35B-A3B.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen3 Max has 965.0B more parameters than Qwen3.5-35B-A3B, making it 2757.1% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Qwen3.5-35B-A3B accepts 262,144 input tokens compared to Qwen3 Max's 256,000 tokens. Qwen3.5-35B-A3B can generate longer responses up to 262,144 tokens, while Qwen3 Max is limited to 131,072 tokens.
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Qwen3.5-35B-A3B supports multimodal inputs, whereas Qwen3 Max does not.
Qwen3.5-35B-A3B can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Qwen3 Max
Qwen3.5-35B-A3B
License
Usage and distribution terms
Qwen3 Max is licensed under a proprietary license, while Qwen3.5-35B-A3B uses Apache 2.0.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Proprietary
Closed source
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Qwen3 Max was released on 2025-12-15, while Qwen3.5-35B-A3B was released on 2026-02-24.
Qwen3.5-35B-A3B is 2 months newer than Qwen3 Max.
Dec 15, 2025
9 months ago
Feb 24, 2026
6 months ago
2mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
Qwen3 Max is available from Novita, DeepInfra. Qwen3.5-35B-A3B is available from DeepInfra, Novita.
Qwen3 Max
Qwen3.5-35B-A3B
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Qwen3 Max and Qwen3.5-35B-A3B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Qwen3 Max vs Qwen3.5-35B-A3B.