Qwen3.5-Flash vs Qwen3.6 Flash
Qwen3.5-Flash costs 4.3x less per output token than Qwen3.6 Flash ($0.26 vs $1.125 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 10 benchmarks have a result for both.
Qwen3.5-Flash or Qwen3.6 Flash: which to pick
Only Qwen3.5-Flash has a coding score, 41.1 on the Vibe Coding Index; Qwen3.6 Flash has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Qwen3.6 Flash for work measured by ALE-Bench or GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run), where it leads.
- Shared results
- 10
- Qwen3.5-Flash only
- 45
- Qwen3.6 Flash only
- 1
- Like-for-like categories
- 6 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-Flash has a coding score, so no call is made.
One side not measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only Qwen3.5-Flash has a GPQA Diamond result, 82.8%.
Directional only
Math
AIME
No call
Only Qwen3.5-Flash has a AIME result, 92.5%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Qwen3.5-Flash has a MMLU Pro result, 84.1%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
No call
Both take 1M tokens.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Qwen3.5-Flash
Qwen3.5-Flash $0.0002, Qwen3.6 Flash $0.0008 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Qwen3.5-Flash has the number, $0.40.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- Qwen3.5-Flash 41.1 from 2 benchmarks, Qwen3.6 Flash not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Knowledge, 4.4 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- DTBench: Qwen3.5-Flash 82.9% against Qwen3.6 Flash 77.1%, 5.9 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Qwen3.5-Flash $0.26 against Qwen3.6 Flash $1.125 per million output tokens, 4.3x apart.
- Context window
- Both take 1M tokens.
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-Flash | Bars | Qwen3.6 Flash | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 1 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 2 | 1 | ||
| Math | 0 | 1 | 1 tie | |
| Knowledge | 1 | 0 | ||
| General | 1 | 1 | ||
| All shared boards | 5 | 4 | 1 tie |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index01
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-Flash | Qwen3.6 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1244 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 83.3% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 64.4% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| ALE-Bench | 265.9 | 326.4 | Qwen3.6 Flash |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1412 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1416 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1229 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1291 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 35 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-Flash | Qwen3.6 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 143.5 | 142.9 | Qwen3.5-Flash |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
Agentic workNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-Flash | Qwen3.6 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 42 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index21
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-Flash | Qwen3.6 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 82.8% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 81.9% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 82.3% | 83.3% | Qwen3.6 Flash |
| SimpleBench | Not measured | 35.2% | Only Qwen3.6 Flash measured |
| Chess puzzles | 14.0% | 12.0% | Qwen3.5-Flash |
| Mystery game puzzles | 20.0% | 18.0% | Qwen3.5-Flash |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1403 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1407 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1409 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 14 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-Flash | Qwen3.6 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 92.5% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 84.4% | 84.4% | Tie |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 18.2% | 22.5% | Qwen3.6 Flash |
| LMArena Text: math | 1407 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1413 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-Flash | Qwen3.6 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 84.1% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 84.3% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 56.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 63.6% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 72.2% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 67.4% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 33.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | 20.3% | 15.9% | Qwen3.5-Flash |
| LMArena Text: science | 1415 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1407 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1398 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1394 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
Web designNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-Flash | Qwen3.6 Flash | 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-Flash | Qwen3.6 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 42.5% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 70.6% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| DTBench | 82.9% | 77.1% | Qwen3.5-Flash |
| LMCA | 29.1% | 31.0% | Qwen3.6 Flash |
| LMArena Text | 1397 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1374 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1343 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1404 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1385 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1445 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: German | 1390 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1369 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1344 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1413 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1400 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1380 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1376 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1393 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1392 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1369 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1347 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5-Flash measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 27 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-Flash | Qwen3.6 Flash | 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-Flash costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Qwen3.5-Flash costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Qwen3.5-Flash 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-Flash | Qwen3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Qwen | Qwen |
| Weights | No public weights listed | No public weights listed |
| Released | February 25, 2026 | April 27, 2026 |
| Context window | 1M | 1M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.065 | $0.1875 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.26 | $1.125 |
| Coding index | 41.1 | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 2 | 0 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.40 | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Qwen3.5-Flash better than Qwen3.6 Flash for coding?
Only Qwen3.5-Flash has a coding score, 41.1 on the Vibe Coding Index; Qwen3.6 Flash has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Qwen3.6 Flash for work measured by ALE-Bench or GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run), where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3.5-Flash or Qwen3.6 Flash?
Qwen3.5-Flash costs $0.065 per million input tokens and $0.26 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 Flash costs $0.1875 and $1.125. Cost per solved task is known for Qwen3.5-Flash only.
Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3.5-Flash or Qwen3.6 Flash?
Neither: both take 1M tokens.
How many benchmarks is the Qwen3.5-Flash vs Qwen3.6 Flash comparison based on?
10 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Qwen3.5-Flash's coding index rests on 2 independent benchmarks and Qwen3.6 Flash's on 0. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.