Qwen3.5 397B A17B vs Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) leads Qwen3.5 397B A17B on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 45.4 to 21.4, and Qwen3.5 397B A17B costs 2.6x less per output token ($2.34 vs $6.00 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 59 benchmarks have a result for both.
Qwen3.5 397B A17B or Qwen3.8 Max (0902): which to pick
Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) has a coding score, 62.4 on the Vibe Coding Index; Qwen3.5 397B A17B has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Qwen3.5 397B A17B for output tokens 2.6x cheaper ($2.34 vs $6.00 per million).
- Shared results
- 59
- Qwen3.5 397B A17B only
- 7
- Qwen3.8 Max (0902) only
- 55
- Like-for-like categories
- 8 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 Qwen3.8 Max (0902) has a coding score, so no call is made.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) leads, 45.4 against 21.4.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) has a AA Agentic Index result, 56.0.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) has a GPQA Diamond result, 93.7%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) has a MMLU Pro result, 88.6%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) leads, 1275 against 1190.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) takes 1M tokens against 262K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Qwen3.5 397B A17B
Qwen3.5 397B A17B $0.0016, Qwen3.8 Max (0902) $0.0050 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) has the number, $1.32.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- Qwen3.5 397B A17B not benchmarked, Qwen3.8 Max (0902) 62.4 from 5 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 38.4 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3: Qwen3.5 397B A17B 31.2% against Qwen3.8 Max (0902) 74.7%, 43.5 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Qwen3.5 397B A17B $2.34 against Qwen3.8 Max (0902) $6.00 per million output tokens, 2.6x apart.
- Context window
- Qwen3.5 397B A17B takes 262K tokens, Qwen3.8 Max (0902) 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 397B A17B | Bars | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 6 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 2 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 9 | ||
| Math | 0 | 5 | ||
| Knowledge | 0 | 4 | ||
| Web design | 0 | 6 | ||
| General | 0 | 26 | ||
| All shared boards | 0 | 59 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index06
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | Not measured | 60.3% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1400 | 1674 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| AA Coding Index | Not measured | 76.2 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 87.8% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | Not measured | 85.6% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 34.3% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 64.7% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | Not measured | 24.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | Not measured | 68.9% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 67.4% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI) | Not measured | 42.5% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 12.8% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 42.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 28.6% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| SciCode | 44.8% | 53.2% | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 40.9% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| FrontierSWE | Not measured | 17.8% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| ALE-Bench | 621.9 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1464 | 1502 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1463 | 1498 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1388 | 1692 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1410 | 1649 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | Not measured | 1637 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 19 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 21.4 | 45.4 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 146.8 | 157.4 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | Not measured | 56.0 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | Not measured | 1300 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps | Not measured | 1305 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | Not measured | 1224 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Android apps | Not measured | 1190 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Godot games | Not measured | 1234 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: PowerPoint slides | Not measured | 1232 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: spreadsheets | Not measured | 993 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LiveBench research | Not measured | 69.9% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LiveBench browser | Not measured | 32.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | Not measured | 42.3% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | Not measured | 50.6% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 32.1% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 47.6% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 60.1% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | Not measured | 12.9% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 95.6% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| APEX-Agents | 24.9% | 63.3% | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Search | Not measured | 1261 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 23 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index09
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | Not measured | 93.7% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LiveBench reasoning | Not measured | 88.2% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| MysteryMechanism (Vals AI) | Not measured | 23.9% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | Not measured | 88.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 89.3% | 92.8% | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 29.0% | 43.1% | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 86.4% | 92.7% | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Chess puzzles | Not measured | 46.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 18.0% | 38.0% | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1448 | 1496 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1462 | 1507 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1450 | 1503 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1277 | 1323 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1292 | 1336 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index05
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | 88.9% | 100.0% | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 31.2% | 74.7% | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | Not measured | 46.3% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| ProofBench | Not measured | 58.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1453 | 1501 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1454 | 1491 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| MathArena | 19.2% | 51.6% | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index04
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | Not measured | 88.6% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 83.6% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | Not measured | 65.8% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | Not measured | 75.5% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | Not measured | 64.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | Not measured | 40.7% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | Not measured | 47.3% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1457 | 1512 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1455 | 1503 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1441 | 1492 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1435 | 1480 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index06
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1190 | 1275 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1161 | 1336 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1140 | 1312 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1175 | 1282 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1160 | 1336 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1179 | 1292 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1139 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | Not measured | 1200 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LiveBench design | Not measured | 78.6% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index026
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench data analysis | Not measured | 78.4% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 67.1% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | Not measured | 51.2% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | Not measured | 85.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Vals Multimodal Index | Not measured | 65.4% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| IFBench | 78.8% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 77.3% | 80.3% | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| DTBench | 87.5% | 92.0% | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMCA | 37.9% | 46.2% | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Furniture assembly | Not measured | 20.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text | 1437 | 1483 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1424 | 1481 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1402 | 1477 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Vision | 1262 | 1313 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: English | 1443 | 1491 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1430 | 1473 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1498 | 1539 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: German | 1445 | 1478 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1429 | 1473 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1384 | 1460 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: French | 1462 | 1498 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1441 | 1489 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1430 | 1482 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1447 | 1471 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1446 | 1489 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1441 | 1488 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1415 | 1477 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1399 | 1464 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1268 | 1311 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1314 | 1358 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1271 | 1322 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Vision: humor | 1262 | 1304 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Vision: captioning | 1230 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision: recognizing things | 1265 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5 397B A17B measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1260 | 1312 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5 397B A17B | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | 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 397B A17B costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Qwen3.5 397B A17B costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Qwen3.5 397B A17B 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 397B A17B | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Qwen | Qwen |
| Weights | Open weights | No public weights listed |
| Released | February 16, 2026 | September 3, 2026 |
| Context window | 262K | 1M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.39 | $2.00 |
| Output $/Mtok | $2.34 | $6.00 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | 62.4 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 1 | 5 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | $1.32 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Qwen3.5 397B A17B better than Qwen3.8 Max (0902) for coding?
Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) has a coding score, 62.4 on the Vibe Coding Index; Qwen3.5 397B A17B has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Qwen3.5 397B A17B for output tokens 2.6x cheaper ($2.34 vs $6.00 per million).
Which is cheaper, Qwen3.5 397B A17B or Qwen3.8 Max (0902)?
Qwen3.5 397B A17B costs $0.39 per million input tokens and $2.34 per million output tokens; Qwen3.8 Max (0902) costs $2.00 and $6.00. Cost per solved task is known for Qwen3.8 Max (0902) only.
Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3.5 397B A17B or Qwen3.8 Max (0902)?
Qwen3.8 Max (0902), with 1M tokens against 262K.
How many benchmarks is the Qwen3.5 397B A17B vs Qwen3.8 Max (0902) comparison based on?
59 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Qwen3.5 397B A17B's coding index rests on 1 independent benchmark and Qwen3.8 Max (0902)'s on 5. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.