Qwen3.5-27B vs Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20
Qwen3.5-27B and Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 cost about the same per output token ($1.56 vs $1.80 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 4 benchmarks have a result for both.
Qwen3.5-27B or Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20: which to pick
Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 has a coding score, 39.5 on the Vibe Coding Index; Qwen3.5-27B has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Qwen3.5-27B for output tokens 1.2x cheaper ($1.56 vs $1.80 per million) and work measured by Vending-Bench 2 or DTBench, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 4
- Qwen3.5-27B only
- 50
- Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 only
- 21
- Like-for-like categories
- 3 of 9
Only benchmarks that tested both models count toward a pick; a result only one model has is shown but not compared.
Which one for your work
Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
No call
Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 has a coding score, so no call is made.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
No call
Only Qwen3.5-27B has a AA Intelligence Index result, 22.9.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 has a GPQA Diamond result, 87.4%.
Directional only
Math
AIME
No call
Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 has a AIME result, 86.0%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 has a MMLU Pro result, 87.2%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20
Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 takes 1M tokens against 262K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Qwen3.5-27B
Qwen3.5-27B $0.0010, Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 $0.0012 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 has the number, $1.35.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- Qwen3.5-27B not benchmarked, Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 39.5 from 2 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Coding, 8.6 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- ALE-Bench: Qwen3.5-27B 349.4 against Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 608.9, 8.6 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Qwen3.5-27B $1.56 against Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 $1.80 per million output tokens, 1.2x apart.
- Context window
- Qwen3.5-27B takes 262K tokens, Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 1M.
Benchmark by benchmark
First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.
| Category | Qwen3.5-27B | Bars | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 1 | 0 | ||
| General | 1 | 1 | ||
| All shared boards | 2 | 2 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index01
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-27B | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1358 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 85.3% | Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | Not measured | 71.2% | Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 15.7% | Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 32.6% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| WeirdML | 39.5% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| ALE-Bench | 349.4 | 608.9 | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1427 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1431 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1346 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1386 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 32 boards here | |||
IntelligenceDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index2 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-27B | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 22.9 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 146.2 | Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-27B | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 93.9% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $202 | $1 | Qwen3.5-27B |
| Neither model has a result on the other 40 boards here | |||
ReasoningDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index12 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-27B | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | Not measured | 87.4% | Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | Not measured | 22.8% | Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 85.8% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 23.9% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | Not measured | 84.8% | Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 measured |
| Chess puzzles | Not measured | 8.0% | Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | Not measured | 17.0% | Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1415 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1427 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1429 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1249 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1256 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 11 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index5 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-27B | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | Not measured | 86.0% | Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | Not measured | 86.7% | Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1429 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1429 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| MathArena | 15.8% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-27B | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | Not measured | 87.2% | Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 85.1% | Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 measured |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | Not measured | 59.7% | Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | Not measured | 65.3% | Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | Not measured | 60.8% | Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 measured |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | Not measured | 95.2% | Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | Not measured | 25.4% | Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1437 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1425 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1405 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1399 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
Web designNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-27B | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 9 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-27B | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAGE (Vals AI) | Not measured | 30.4% | Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 measured |
| IFBench | 75.6% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 77.7% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| DTBench | 82.4% | 80.5% | Qwen3.5-27B |
| LMCA | 34.0% | 36.4% | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 |
| CL-bench | Not measured | 19.8% | Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 measured |
| CL-bench Life | Not measured | 12.4% | Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1409 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1393 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1362 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| LMArena Vision | 1241 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1425 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1390 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1478 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| LMArena Text: German | 1392 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1346 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1359 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1410 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1407 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1390 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1375 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1410 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1413 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1380 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1363 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1246 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1301 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1246 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | 1227 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| LMArena Vision: captioning | 1170 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| LMArena Vision: recognizing things | 1210 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1224 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-27B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-27B | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 5 boards here | |||
What each workload costs
Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.
Chat turn
1K input + 500 output tokens
Qwen3.5-27B costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Qwen3.5-27B costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Qwen3.5-27B costs less
Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.
Specification differences
The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.
| Specification | Qwen3.5-27B | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Qwen | Qwen |
| Weights | Open weights | No public weights listed |
| Released | February 25, 2026 | April 27, 2026 |
| Context window | 262K | 1M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.195 | $0.30 |
| Output $/Mtok | $1.56 | $1.80 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | 39.5 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 1 | 2 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | $1.35 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Qwen3.5-27B better than Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 for coding?
Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 has a coding score, 39.5 on the Vibe Coding Index; Qwen3.5-27B has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Qwen3.5-27B for output tokens 1.2x cheaper ($1.56 vs $1.80 per million) and work measured by Vending-Bench 2 or DTBench, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3.5-27B or Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20?
Qwen3.5-27B costs $0.195 per million input tokens and $1.56 per million output tokens; Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 costs $0.30 and $1.80. Cost per solved task is known for Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 only.
Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3.5-27B or Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20?
Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20, with 1M tokens against 262K.
How many benchmarks is the Qwen3.5-27B vs Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 comparison based on?
4 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Qwen3.5-27B's coding index rests on 1 independent benchmark and Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20's on 2. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.