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Head-to-head comparison

Qwen3.5-9B vs Qwen3.8 Max (0902)

Qwen3.5-9B (Qwen) and Qwen3.8 Max (0902) (Qwen) compared on the ModelCap Index, API price, context window, provider availability, weight access and every public benchmark board they share. Figures are the same ones shown on the live rankings; nothing here is a hidden score.

Snapshot as of 9 September 2026

As of 9 September 2026, Qwen3.8 Max (0902) holds the stronger ModelCap Index position (#32 vs #97); Qwen3.5-9B is 40× cheaper per output token ($0.15/1M vs $6.00/1M); Qwen3.8 Max (0902) offers the longer context window (1M vs 262K tokens); and Qwen3.5-9B ships open weights.

Which should you choose?

Choose Qwen3.5-9B if…

  • API cost matters — $0.15/1M output tokens against $6.00/1M, about 40× cheaper.
  • your workload is prompt-heavy — input tokens cost $0.10/1M against $2.00/1M.
  • you want to self-host: Qwen3.5-9B ships open weights while Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is api only.
  • you want provider choice — 6 listed API providers against 1.

Choose Qwen3.8 Max (0902) if…

  • you want the stronger overall ModelCap Index position — #32 against #97 (66.6 vs 41.1 points).
  • you need the longer context window — 1M tokens against 262K.
  • you want the more recently listed model — Qwen3.8 Max (0902) was listed 3 September 2026, Qwen3.5-9B 10 March 2026.

Qwen3.5-9B vs Qwen3.8 Max (0902): specs, pricing and context

Specification comparison of Qwen3.5-9B and Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
FieldQwen3.5-9BQwenQwen3.8 Max (0902)Qwen
ModelCap Index position#97#32
Index score41.166.6
EvidenceEstimatedEstimated
Input price / 1M tokens$0.10$2.00
Output price / 1M tokens$0.15$6.00
Context window262K tokens1M tokens
Max output tokens236K131K
API providers listed61
Weight accessOpen weightsAPI only
Input modalitiesText, Image, VideoText, Image, Video
First listed10 March 20263 September 2026
PublisherQwenQwen

Evidence: publisher-corpus-prior over 182 held-out anchors (30%); launch card against 3 resolved peers on 10 rows (70%); exceeds every named peer on 4 of 10 rows; optimism haircut 0.6 from cross-lab-probe; shrunk 3.7 up toward the measured corpus · publisher-corpus-prior over 182 held-out anchors (23%); opens from measured predecessor qwen/qwen3.7-max (78%); shrunk 4.9 toward the measured corpus. Prices are the lowest listed API offer per million tokens observed on the OpenRouter catalogue.

Benchmark scores: Qwen3.5-9B vs Qwen3.8 Max (0902)

Public benchmark boards where Qwen3.5-9B or Qwen3.8 Max (0902) has a published result
BoardQwen3.5-9BQwen3.8 Max (0902)Leads
AA Terminal-Bench 2.1Artificial Analysis29.2%terminal-bench:2.1:terminus-2:e2b:pass-at-1:3-repeats:source-model="Qwen3.5 9B":reasoning=true—Only one result
AA τ²-Bench TelecomArtificial Analysis86.8%tau2:telecom:dual-control:pass-at-1:3-repeats:source-model="Qwen3.5 9B":reasoning=true—Only one result
AA Humanity's Last ExamArtificial Analysis14.9%hle:may-2025:text-only-2158:no-tools:pass-at-1:source-model="Qwen3.5 9B":reasoning=true—Only one result

Scores are the sources' own published figures for each model's best evaluated configuration; ModelCap never re-runs a benchmark.

Want a different pairing? Open the interactive comparison tool to swap either model for any current ranked language model.

Qwen3.5-9B vs Qwen3.8 Max (0902): common questions

Is Qwen3.5-9B better than Qwen3.8 Max (0902)?

Qwen3.8 Max (0902) ranks higher on the ModelCap Index as of 9 September 2026: #32 against #97. That is a capability ranking built from public benchmark evidence with published uncertainty; whether it is "better" for you also depends on price, context and where you can run it. Their published uncertainty intervals overlap, so the rank difference alone does not establish a reliable capability advantage for your workload.

Is Qwen3.5-9B cheaper than Qwen3.8 Max (0902)?

Qwen3.5-9B is cheaper on output tokens: $0.15/1M against $6.00/1M. Input tokens are $0.10/1M for Qwen3.5-9B and $2.00/1M for Qwen3.8 Max (0902). Prices are the lowest listed API offer ModelCap observed, in USD per million tokens. For 1,000 requests with 2,000 input and 500 output tokens each (2M input + 0.5M output), the listed-rate estimate is $0.27 for Qwen3.5-9B versus $7.00 for Qwen3.8 Max (0902). Qwen3.5-9B costs 96.1% less in this scenario. This excludes caching, batch discounts, prompt-length tiers, tool charges and retries; verify the selected endpoint before budgeting.

Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3.5-9B or Qwen3.8 Max (0902)?

Qwen3.8 Max (0902) has the larger context window: 1M tokens against 262K.

Which is better for coding, Qwen3.5-9B or Qwen3.8 Max (0902)?

The two models do not share a coding benchmark board on ModelCap yet, so no head-to-head coding score is published; the ModelCap Index position is the closest overall signal.

Are Qwen3.5-9B and Qwen3.8 Max (0902) open-weight models?

Qwen3.5-9B: Open weights. Qwen3.8 Max (0902): API only. Open weights mean the checkpoint can be downloaded and self-hosted under its licence; API-only models are available solely through hosted endpoints.

Where can I run Qwen3.5-9B and Qwen3.8 Max (0902)?

ModelCap currently lists 6 API providers for Qwen3.5-9B and 1 for Qwen3.8 Max (0902), from the OpenRouter catalogue snapshot the site serves; each model page lists the providers and their prices.

How current is this Qwen3.5-9B vs Qwen3.8 Max (0902) comparison?

Every figure comes from the sealed ModelCap dataset published 9 September 2026; the page re-renders within a minute of each data refresh, and the ModelCap Index positions are the same ones shown on the live rankings.

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