Qwen3.5-397B-A17B vs Qwen3 Max Comparison
Comparing Qwen3.5-397B-A17B and Qwen3 Max across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B outperforms in 5 benchmarks (GPQA, LiveCodeBench v6, SuperGPQA, SWE-Bench Verified, t2-bench), while Qwen3 Max is better at 0 benchmarks.
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Human preference votes
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B ($0.60/1M tokens) is 1.2x more expensive than Qwen3 Max ($0.50/1M tokens).
For output processing, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B ($3.60/1M tokens) is 1.4x cheaper than Qwen3 Max ($5.00/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Qwen3 Max is more expensive than Qwen3.5-397B-A17B.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Qwen3 Max has 603.0B more parameters than Qwen3.5-397B-A17B, making it 151.9% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B accepts 262,144 input tokens compared to Qwen3 Max's 256,000 tokens. Qwen3 Max can generate longer responses up to 131,072 tokens, while Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is limited to 64,000 tokens.
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B supports multimodal inputs, whereas Qwen3 Max does not.
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B
Qwen3 Max
License
Usage and distribution terms
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is licensed under Apache 2.0, while Qwen3 Max uses a proprietary license.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Proprietary
Closed source
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B was released on 2026-02-16, while Qwen3 Max was released on 2025-12-15.
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is 2 months newer than Qwen3 Max.
Feb 16, 2026
4 weeks ago
2mo newerDec 15, 2025
3 months ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is available from Novita. Qwen3 Max is available from Novita. The availability of providers can affect quality of the model and reliability.
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B
Qwen3 Max
Outputs Comparison
Key Takeaways
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B
View detailsAlibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 Max
View detailsAlibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Detailed Comparison
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