Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct vs Qwen3.5-397B-A17B Comparison
Comparing Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct and Qwen3.5-397B-A17B across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is better at 9 benchmarks (HMMT25, IFEval, Include, LiveCodeBench v6, MMLU-Pro, MMLU-ProX, MMLU-Redux, PolyMATH, SuperGPQA).
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Human preference votes
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct ($0.10/1M tokens) is 6.0x cheaper than Qwen3.5-397B-A17B ($0.60/1M tokens).
For output processing, Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct ($0.60/1M tokens) is 6.0x cheaper than Qwen3.5-397B-A17B ($3.60/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is more expensive than Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B has 393.0B more parameters than Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct, making it 9825.0% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Both models have the same input context window of 262,144 tokens. Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct can generate longer responses up to 262,144 tokens, while Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is limited to 64,000 tokens.
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Both Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct and Qwen3.5-397B-A17B support multimodal inputs.
They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.
Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B
License
Usage and distribution terms
Both models are licensed under Apache 2.0.
Both models share the same licensing terms, providing consistent usage rights.
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct was released on 2025-09-22, while Qwen3.5-397B-A17B was released on 2026-02-16.
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is 5 months newer than Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct.
Sep 22, 2025
5 months ago
Feb 16, 2026
3 weeks ago
4mo 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 VL 4B Instruct is available from DeepInfra. Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is available from Novita. The availability of providers can affect quality of the model and reliability.
Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B
Outputs Comparison
Key Takeaways
Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct
View detailsAlibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B
View detailsAlibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Detailed Comparison
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