Model comparison
Qwen3 235B 2507 vs Qwen3.5 397B
Head-to-head evidence from 4 shared benchmark results across 2 categories. Overall scores shown here use the public BenchAlign v5 ranking lane.
Public leaderboard positions: Qwen3 235B 2507 #78 (Estimated); Qwen3.5 397B #71 (Estimated). Intervals and evidence labels describe ranking uncertainty, not a guarantee for a specific workload.
Evidence parity. Qwen3 235B 2507 and Qwen3.5 397B share 4 comparable benchmark results. 2 of 8 categories are comparable. 0 results are unique to Qwen3 235B 2507; 51 to Qwen3.5 397B.
Updated July 22, 2026- Shared results
- 4
- Qwen3 235B 2507 only
- 0
- Qwen3.5 397B only
- 51
- Comparable categories
- 2 / 8
Pick Qwen3.5 397B if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Qwen3 235B 2507 only becomes the better choice if knowledge is the priority or you want the cheaper token bill.
Confidence note. This is a partial-evidence comparison with 4 shared benchmark results across 2 evidence categories; 2 of 8 categories currently have scoreable aggregates for both models. Treat the verdict as directional until coverage is more balanced.
Why this result
Qwen3.5 397B has the cleaner BenchAlign overall profile here, landing at 57.01 versus 56.02. It is a real lead, but still close enough that category-level strengths matter more than the headline number.
Qwen3.5 397B's sharpest advantage is in multilingual, where it averages 84.7 against 79.4. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is GPQA, 77.5% to 88.4%. Qwen3 235B 2507 does hit back in knowledge, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.
Qwen3.5 397B is also the more expensive model on tokens at $0.60 input / $3.60 output per 1M tokens, versus $0.00 input / $0.00 output per 1M tokens for Qwen3 235B 2507. That is roughly Infinityx on output cost alone.
Category breakdown
Exact category averages are shown below. Not measured means BenchLM does not have enough sourced public coverage for that model and category.
| Category | Qwen3 235B 2507 | Δ | Qwen3.5 397B |
|---|---|---|---|
| Knowledge | Qwen3 235B 250778.9 | Margin← 22.3 | Qwen3.5 397B56.6 |
| Multilingual | Qwen3 235B 250779.4 | Margin→ 5.3 | Qwen3.5 397B84.7 |
| Agentic | Qwen3 235B 2507Not measured | MarginNo overlap | Qwen3.5 397B56.5 |
| Coding | Qwen3 235B 2507Not measured | MarginNo overlap | Qwen3.5 397B66.5 |
| Reasoning | Qwen3 235B 2507Not measured | MarginNo overlap | Qwen3.5 397B63.2 |
| Math | Qwen3 235B 2507Not measured | MarginNo overlap | Qwen3.5 397B90.6 |
| Multimodal | Qwen3 235B 2507Not measured | MarginNo overlap | Qwen3.5 397B79.6 |
| Inst. Following | Qwen3 235B 2507Not measured | MarginNo overlap | Qwen3.5 397B92.6 |
Decisive benchmark drivers
The largest measured benchmark gaps in this matchup, with exact reported values.
More
- Source ↗
GPQA
KnowledgeA 77.5%B 88.4%Winner: Qwen3.5 397BΔ 10.9GPQA: Qwen3 235B 2507 scored 77.5%; Qwen3.5 397B scored 88.4%. Qwen3.5 397B wins this benchmark. - Source ↗
SuperGPQA
KnowledgeA 62.6%B 70.4%Winner: Qwen3.5 397BΔ 7.8SuperGPQA: Qwen3 235B 2507 scored 62.6%; Qwen3.5 397B scored 70.4%. Qwen3.5 397B wins this benchmark. - Source ↗
MMLU-ProX
MultilingualA 79.4%B 84.7%Winner: Qwen3.5 397BΔ 5.3MMLU-ProX: Qwen3 235B 2507 scored 79.4%; Qwen3.5 397B scored 84.7%. Qwen3.5 397B wins this benchmark. - Source ↗
MMLU-Pro
KnowledgeA 83%B 87.8%Winner: Qwen3.5 397BΔ 4.8MMLU-Pro: Qwen3 235B 2507 scored 83%; Qwen3.5 397B scored 87.8%. Qwen3.5 397B wins this benchmark.
Operational comparison
Runtime and commercial metrics are compared only when both models have a complete sourced value.
| Metric | Qwen3 235B 2507 | Qwen3.5 397B | Comparison |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input / output priceUSD per 1M tokens | Qwen3 235B 2507$0 input / $0 output | Qwen3.5 397B$0.6 input / $3.6 output | Qwen3 235B 2507 has the lower combined listed price. |
| Generation speedtokens per second | Qwen3 235B 2507Not available | Qwen3.5 397B96 tok/s | A complete speed comparison is not available. |
| First-answer latencyseconds to first token | Qwen3 235B 2507Not available | Qwen3.5 397B2.44 s | A complete latency comparison is not available. |
| Context windowmaximum listed tokens | Qwen3 235B 2507128K | Qwen3.5 397B128K | Listed context windows are equal. |
Benchmark Deep Dive
Agentic18 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Qwen3 235B 2507 | Qwen3.5 397B | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench 2.0Source | — | 52.5% | Not comparable |
| BrowseCompSource | — | 62% | Not comparable |
| Claw-EvalSource | — | 56.8% | Not comparable |
| QwenClawBenchSource | — | 51.8% | Not comparable |
| τ³-bench resultsSource | — | 68.4% | Not comparable |
| VITA-BenchSource | — | 43.7% | Not comparable |
| DeepPlanningSource | — | 37.6% | Not comparable |
| ToolathlonSource | — | 36.3% | Not comparable |
| MCP AtlasSource | — | 46.1% | Not comparable |
| MCP-TasksSource | — | 74.2% | Not comparable |
| WideResearchSource | — | 74.0% | Not comparable |
| τ²-bench resultsSource | — | 95.6% | Not comparable |
| Gert LabsSource | — | 46.76% | Not comparable |
| ResearchClawBenchSource | — | 14.2% | Not comparable |
| AA Agentic IndexSource | — | 19.9% | Not comparable |
| APEX-Agents-AASource | — | 15.3% | Not comparable |
| GDPval-AASource | — | 23.1% | Not comparable |
| GDPval-AASource | — | 962 | Not comparable |
Coding5 benchmarks
Reasoning4 benchmarks
KnowledgeQwen3 235B 2507 wins12 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Qwen3 235B 2507 | Qwen3.5 397B | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQASource | 77.5% | 88.4% | Qwen3.5 397B leads |
| SuperGPQASource | 62.6% | 70.4% | Qwen3.5 397B leads |
| MMLU-ProSource | 83% | 87.8% | Qwen3.5 397B leads |
| MMLU-ReduxSource | — | 94.9% | Not comparable |
| C-EvalSource | — | 93% | Not comparable |
| HLESource | — | 28.7% | Not comparable |
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexSource | — | 33.7% | Not comparable |
| AA-GPQA DiamondSource | — | 89.3% | Not comparable |
| AA-HLESource | — | 27.3% | Not comparable |
| AA-Omniscience IndexSource | — | -29.8% | Not comparable |
| AA-Omniscience AccuracySource | — | 31.4% | Not comparable |
| AA-Omniscience Hallucination RateSource | — | 89.1% | Not comparable |
Math5 benchmarks
MultilingualQwen3.5 397B wins2 benchmarks
Multimodal7 benchmarks
Frequently Asked Questions (3)
Which is better, Qwen3 235B 2507 or Qwen3.5 397B?
Qwen3.5 397B is ahead on BenchLM's BenchAlign leaderboard, 57.01 to 56.02. The biggest single separator in this matchup is GPQA, where the scores are 77.5% and 88.4%.
Which is better for knowledge tasks, Qwen3 235B 2507 or Qwen3.5 397B?
Qwen3 235B 2507 has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 78.9 versus 56.6. Inside this category, GPQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Which is better for multilingual tasks, Qwen3 235B 2507 or Qwen3.5 397B?
Qwen3.5 397B has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 84.7 versus 79.4. Inside this category, MMLU-ProX is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
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