Model Comparison

Qwen3.5-27B vs Qwen3.6-35B-A3BWhich is better in 2026?

Qwen3.5-27B has a slight edge in benchmark performance.

Verdict: Qwen3.5-27B vs Qwen3.6-35B-A3B — which is better?

Qwen3.5-27B (by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team) and Qwen3.6-35B-A3B (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.

Qwen3.5-27B outperforms in 20 benchmarks (AI2D, C-Eval, CharXiv-R, EmbSpatialBench, Hallusion Bench, HMMT 2025, HMMT25, Humanity's Last Exam, LiveCodeBench v6, LVBench, MathVista-Mini, MMLU-Pro, MMMU, RefSpatialBench, SuperGPQA, VideoMME w/o sub., VideoMME w sub., VITA-Bench, WideSearch, ZEROBench-Sub), while Qwen3.6-35B-A3B is better at 15 benchmarks (CC-OCR, DeepPlanning, GPQA, MLVU, MMBench-V1.1, MMLU-Redux, MMMU-Pro, ODinW, OmniDocBench 1.5, RealWorldQA, RefCOCO-avg, SimpleVQA, SWE-Bench Verified, Terminal-Bench 2.0, VideoMMMU). Qwen3.5-27B has a slight edge in benchmark performance.

Choose Qwen3.5-27B if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 20 of 36 shared benchmarks

Choose Qwen3.6-35B-A3B if…

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Apr 2026

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

36 benchmarks

Qwen3.5-27B outperforms in 20 benchmarks (AI2D, C-Eval, CharXiv-R, EmbSpatialBench, Hallusion Bench, HMMT 2025, HMMT25, Humanity's Last Exam, LiveCodeBench v6, LVBench, MathVista-Mini, MMLU-Pro, MMMU, RefSpatialBench, SuperGPQA, VideoMME w/o sub., VideoMME w sub., VITA-Bench, WideSearch, ZEROBench-Sub), while Qwen3.6-35B-A3B is better at 15 benchmarks (CC-OCR, DeepPlanning, GPQA, MLVU, MMBench-V1.1, MMLU-Redux, MMMU-Pro, ODinW, OmniDocBench 1.5, RealWorldQA, RefCOCO-avg, SimpleVQA, SWE-Bench Verified, Terminal-Bench 2.0, VideoMMMU).

Qwen3.5-27B has a slight edge in benchmark performance.

Sat Jul 25 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

8.0B diff

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B has 8.0B more parameters than Qwen3.5-27B, making it 29.6% larger.

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3.5-27B
27.0Bparameters
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B
35.0Bparameters
27.0B
Qwen3.5-27B
35.0B
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Qwen3.5-27B specifies input context (262,144 tokens). Only Qwen3.5-27B specifies output context (65,536 tokens).

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3.5-27B
Input262,144 tokens
Output65,536 tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Sat Jul 25 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Both Qwen3.5-27B and Qwen3.6-35B-A3B support multimodal inputs.

They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.

Qwen3.5-27B

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Both models are licensed under Apache 2.0.

Both models share the same licensing terms, providing consistent usage rights.

Qwen3.5-27B

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Qwen3.5-27B was released on 2026-02-24, while Qwen3.6-35B-A3B was released on 2026-04-16.

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B is 2 months newer than Qwen3.5-27B.

Qwen3.5-27B

Feb 24, 2026

5 months ago

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B

Apr 16, 2026

3 months ago

1mo newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Qwen3.5-27B

View details

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Larger context window (262,144 tokens)
Higher AI2D score (92.9% vs 92.7%)
Higher C-Eval score (90.5% vs 90.0%)
Higher CharXiv-R score (79.5% vs 78.0%)
Higher EmbSpatialBench score (84.5% vs 84.3%)
Higher Hallusion Bench score (70.0% vs 69.8%)
Higher HMMT 2025 score (92.0% vs 90.7%)
Higher HMMT25 score (89.8% vs 89.1%)
Higher Humanity's Last Exam score (48.5% vs 21.4%)
Higher LiveCodeBench v6 score (80.7% vs 80.4%)
Higher LVBench score (73.6% vs 71.4%)
Higher MathVista-Mini score (87.8% vs 86.4%)
Higher MMLU-Pro score (86.1% vs 85.2%)
Higher MMMU score (82.3% vs 81.7%)
Higher RefSpatialBench score (67.7% vs 64.3%)
Higher SuperGPQA score (65.6% vs 64.7%)
Higher VideoMME w/o sub. score (82.8% vs 82.5%)
Higher VideoMME w sub. score (87.0% vs 86.6%)
Higher VITA-Bench score (41.9% vs 35.6%)
Higher WideSearch score (61.1% vs 60.1%)
Higher ZEROBench-Sub score (36.2% vs 34.4%)
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B

View details

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Higher CC-OCR score (81.9% vs 81.0%)
Higher DeepPlanning score (25.9% vs 22.6%)
Higher GPQA score (86.0% vs 85.5%)
Higher MLVU score (86.2% vs 85.9%)
Higher MMBench-V1.1 score (92.8% vs 92.6%)
Higher MMLU-Redux score (93.3% vs 93.2%)
Higher MMMU-Pro score (75.3% vs 75.0%)
Higher ODinW score (50.8% vs 41.1%)
Higher OmniDocBench 1.5 score (89.9% vs 88.9%)
Higher RealWorldQA score (85.3% vs 83.7%)
Higher RefCOCO-avg score (92.0% vs 90.9%)
Higher SimpleVQA score (58.9% vs 56.0%)
Higher SWE-Bench Verified score (73.4% vs 72.4%)
Higher Terminal-Bench 2.0 score (51.5% vs 41.6%)
Higher VideoMMMU score (83.7% vs 82.3%)

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Qwen3.5-27B and Qwen3.6-35B-A3B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Qwen3.5-27B
✓ Preferred
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3.5-27B
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B

FAQ

Common questions about Qwen3.5-27B vs Qwen3.6-35B-A3B.

Which is better, Qwen3.5-27B or Qwen3.6-35B-A3B?

Qwen3.5-27B has a slight edge in benchmark performance. Qwen3.5-27B is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team and Qwen3.6-35B-A3B 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 Qwen3.5-27B compare to Qwen3.6-35B-A3B in benchmarks?

Qwen3.5-27B scores CountBench: 97.8%, VLMsAreBlind: 96.9%, IFEval: 95.0%, V*: 93.7%, MMLU-Redux: 93.2%. Qwen3.6-35B-A3B scores MMLU-Redux: 93.3%, MMBench-V1.1: 92.8%, AI2D: 92.7%, AIME 2026: 92.7%, RefCOCO-avg: 92.0%.

What are the context window sizes for Qwen3.5-27B and Qwen3.6-35B-A3B?

Qwen3.5-27B supports 262K tokens and Qwen3.6-35B-A3B supports an unknown number of tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

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