AI model comparison
Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs Qwen3.5-35B-A3B
Pricing, context window, benchmarks, and features compared side by side. Or skip the guesswork and send one prompt to both.
Qwen
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B is an open-weight multimodal model from Alibaba Cloud with 35 billion total parameters and 3 billion active parameters per token.
- Input / 1M
- $0.15
- Output / 1M
- $1
- Context
- 262K
Qwen
Qwen3.5-35B-A3B
The Qwen3.5 Series 35B-A3B is a native vision-language model designed with a hybrid architecture that integrates linear attention mechanisms and a sparse mixture-of-experts model, achieving higher inference efficiency.
- Input / 1M
- $0.08
- Output / 1M
- $0.75
- Context
- 262K
At a glance
Quick verdict
How the two models stack up on the things people ask about most.
Lower price
Qwen3.5-35B-A3B
1.5x cheaper for a typical chat
Higher intelligence score
Qwen3.5-35B-A3B
19.3 vs 18.2 on Artificial Analysis
Larger context window
Tie
262K vs 262K tokens
Newer release
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
Released April 27, 2026
Benchmarks
Benchmark scores
Independent scores from Artificial Analysis. Higher is better.
Intelligence index
Coding index
Agentic index
Pricing
Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs Qwen3.5-35B-A3B API pricing
Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.
| Metric | ||
|---|---|---|
| Input tokensPer 1M tokens | $0.15 | $0.08 |
| Output tokensPer 1M tokens | $1 | $0.75 |
| Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens | $0.05 | $0.04 |
| Cache writePer 1M tokens | Not available | Not available |
What it costs in practice
Estimated cost per 1,000 requests at standard rates. Coding and long-document figures also show the cost when the input is already cached.
Chat message
2K in, 500 out
Coding task
30K in, 4K out
Long document summary
150K in, 2K out
Specs
Context window and capabilities
How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.
| Metric | ||
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 262K tokens | 262K tokens |
| Max output | 236K tokens | 33K tokens |
| Input types | Image, Text, Video | Image, Text, Video |
| Output types | Text | Text |
| Reasoning effort levels | Not available | Not available |
| Default reasoning effort | Not available | Not available |
| Release date | April 27, 2026 | February 25, 2026 |
Features
Supported features
API features available for each model.
| Metric | ||
|---|---|---|
| Tool calling | Supported | Supported |
| Structured outputs | Supported | Supported |
| JSON mode | Supported | Supported |
| Reasoning | Supported | Supported |
| Temperature | Supported | Supported |
| Stop sequences | Supported | Supported |
| Deterministic seed | Supported | Supported |
| Verbosity control | Not supported | Not supported |
Our take
Qwen3.5-35B-A3B is 1.5x cheaper for a typical chat. Qwen3.5-35B-A3B scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (19.3 vs 18.2). The right pick depends on your workload, so the quickest way to settle it is to send the same prompt to both and compare.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is Qwen3.6 35B A3B or Qwen3.5-35B-A3B cheaper?
Qwen3.5-35B-A3B is cheaper for a typical chat (2K input tokens and 500 output tokens). Qwen3.5-35B-A3B costs $0.08 per 1M input tokens and $0.75 per 1M output tokens, while Qwen3.6 35B A3B costs $0.15 per 1M input tokens and $1 per 1M output tokens.
Which has a bigger context window, Qwen3.6 35B A3B or Qwen3.5-35B-A3B?
Qwen3.6 35B A3B supports up to 262K tokens of context, compared with 262K for Qwen3.5-35B-A3B.
Is Qwen3.6 35B A3B smarter than Qwen3.5-35B-A3B?
On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Qwen3.6 35B A3B scores 18.2 and Qwen3.5-35B-A3B scores 19.3, putting Qwen3.5-35B-A3B ahead. Benchmarks don't capture everything, so the best test is running your own prompts through both.
Can I use Qwen3.6 35B A3B and Qwen3.5-35B-A3B at the same time?
Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to multiple models at once, so you can see Qwen3.6 35B A3B and Qwen3.5-35B-A3B answer side by side and keep the better response.
Why choose? Ask both.
Send one prompt to Qwen3.6 35B A3B and Qwen3.5-35B-A3B at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.