Alibaba (Qwen) · language model
Qwen3.5-Flash: pricing, context and benchmarks
Qwen3.5-Flash is a language model from Alibaba (Qwen) released on February 25, 2026. It costs $0.07 per million input tokens and $0.26 per million output tokens, with a 1M-token context window. No independent score has been published for it so far.
| Price | 27/30 | |
|---|---|---|
| Context | 12/15 | |
| Features | 11/15 |
What you need to know about Qwen3.5-Flash
Qwen3.5-Flash was released by Alibaba (Qwen) (China) on February 25, 2026. It accepts text, images, and video as input and produces text. Its context window reaches 1,000,000 tokens, larger than 77 % of the models in the registry, and it can write up to 65,536 tokens in one go.
It has been available for about 8 months, long enough for its prices and scores to have settled.
Qwen3.5-Flash pricing
On OpenRouter, Qwen3.5-Flash costs $0.07 per million input tokens and $0.26 per million output tokens. Counting three tokens read for every token written, its average price is $0.114 per million, more expensive than 11 % of paid models (6.7 times cheaper than the median of $0.76).
A concrete example: a task that sends 2,000 tokens (about 1,500 words) and receives a 500-token answer costs $0.0003. At 1,000 tasks a day, budget $8 a month. The price calculator redoes this with your own volumes.
Performance and benchmarks
Epoch AI does not yet publish a capabilities index for Qwen3.5-Flash. We therefore show no made-up performance rating: only price, context and features count towards its score.
Scores published by Epoch AI on the benchmarks the site tracks:
| Benchmark | What it measures | Score | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | PhD-level science questions | 82.3 % | Feb 25, 2026 |
| FrontierMath | research-level maths problems (tiers 1-3) | 18.3 % | Feb 25, 2026 |
| OTIS Mock AIME | maths competition problems | 84.4 % | Feb 25, 2026 |
| SimpleQA Verified | accuracy on simple facts | 20.3 % | Feb 25, 2026 |
Features, privacy and local use
- It supports tool calling, so it can drive an AI agent, call APIs or MCP servers.
- It can answer in an enforced JSON format (structured outputs).
- It is a reasoning model: it "thinks" before answering, which helps on hard tasks but uses more output tokens.
Its weights are not published: it can only be used through the Alibaba (Qwen) API or a broker such as OpenRouter, which means sending your data off your machines.
Other Alibaba (Qwen) models
| Model | Released | Avg. price | ECI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3.8 Max Prime | Sep 23, 2026 | $6 | — |
| Qwen3.8 Omni Flash | Sep 21, 2026 | $0.23 | — |
| Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Sep 3, 2026 | $3 | 155.1 |
| Qwen3.8 Flash | Aug 26, 2026 | $0.23 | — |
| Qwen3.8 27B | Aug 14, 2026 | $0.78 | 151.7 |
| Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B | Aug 12, 2026 | $3 | — |
| Qwen3.7 Flash | Jul 27, 2026 | $0.06 | 144.1 |
| Qwen3.7 Plus | Jun 3, 2026 | $0.56 | 147 |
Verdict
Qwen3.5-Flash scores 83/100 on our grid, which only uses published figures.
Strengths
- Low price: cheaper than 89 % of paid models.
- Very large context (1M tokens): long documents or a whole codebase fit in one request.
- Agent-ready: tool calling and structured JSON output.
Limitations
- No independent score published: performance cannot be verified.
Avoid if…
- your data must not leave your servers.
Alternatives
- Mercury 3$0.16
- DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423$0.11
- GPT-4.1 Nano$0.18
- Solar Mini 4$0.09
- Laguna S 2.1$0.11
- Nex-N2.5-Pro$0.12
Comparisons and tools
Learn more
Frequently asked questions
How much does Qwen3.5-Flash cost?
$0.07 per million input tokens and $0.26 per million output tokens on OpenRouter (checked October 25, 2026). A task with 2,000 tokens read and 500 written costs $0.0003.
How big is Qwen3.5-Flash's context window?
1,000,000 tokens, roughly 750,000 words, with a maximum of 65,536 output tokens.
Can Qwen3.5-Flash run locally?
No, Alibaba (Qwen) does not publish its weights: it is API-only.
Is Qwen3.5-Flash suitable for an AI agent?
Technically yes: it supports tool calling and structured outputs. Then check its cost for your volume.
What are the alternatives to Qwen3.5-Flash?
The closest models on price and performance are Mercury 3, DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423, and GPT-4.1 Nano.
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Neutrality. No affiliate links. No vendor pays to be reviewed, rated or ranked. Reviews are directed by François Chollet, neutral and factual, and every data point is dated and sourced. How we score