Qwen3.5 397B A17B vs Qwen3.6 27B

API pricing, context window and capabilities for Qwen3.5 397B A17B and Qwen3.6 27B, side by side. Prices are the cheapest serving route per 1M tokens, verified against LiteLLM and OpenRouter.

Verdict

computed from the published numbers

Qwen3.6 27B wins on price, on coding and on intelligence.

Price
Qwen3.6 27B
Coding
Qwen3.6 27B
Intelligence
Qwen3.6 27B
Context window
Tied

Key takeaways

who wins on what, from the published numbers

Qwen3.5 397B A17B wins

  • More serving providers (3 vs 1)
  • Has reasoning mode
  • Supports structured output

Qwen3.6 27B wins

  • Cheaper input ($0.60 vs $0.15 /1M)
  • Cheaper output ($3.60 vs $0.50 /1M)
  • Higher max output (66K vs 262K)
Cheaper overall
Qwen3.6 27B
$0.15 + $0.50 /1M
Larger context
Tied
More providers
Qwen3.5 397B A17B
3 providers

Pricing & specs

cheapest serving route · per 1M tokens
Qwen3.5 397B A17BQwen3.6 27B
Input $/1M$0.60 $0.15 best
Output $/1M$3.60 $0.50 best
Context window262K 262K
Max output66K 262K best
Serving providers3 best1
Released2026-02-16 2026-04-24

Benchmarks

Artificial Analysis indices, side by side
Qwen3.5 397B A17BQwen3.6 27B
Intelligence33.7 37.0 best
Coding48.2 53.7 best
GPQA Diamond89% best84%
Output speed61 t/s best57 t/s
Latency (TTFT)9.37s best33.07s

Cost calculator

choose a serving route for each side
Input tokens / month
Output tokens / month
Qwen3.5 397B A17B
via OpenRouter
$6.60
Qwen3.6 27B
via Libertai
$1.25

Capabilities

feature support, side by side
FeatureQwen3.5 397B A17BQwen3.6 27B
Vision
Tool use
Reasoning
Audio
Prompt caching
Structured output
Web search

Related comparisons

Frequently asked questions

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.5 397B A17B or Qwen3.6 27B?
Qwen3.6 27B is cheaper for input ($0.60 vs $0.15 per 1M tokens). Qwen3.6 27B is cheaper for output ($3.60 vs $0.50 per 1M tokens).
What is the context window difference between Qwen3.5 397B A17B and Qwen3.6 27B?
Both Qwen3.5 397B A17B and Qwen3.6 27B have about a 262K-token context window.
How do Qwen3.5 397B A17B and Qwen3.6 27B compare on benchmarks?
On the tracked Artificial Analysis indices, Qwen3.6 27B leads on coding, and Qwen3.6 27B leads on intelligence.
Pricing verified against LiteLLM + OpenRouter + provider pages · refreshed daily

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