| Signal | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15 | Delta | Qwen3 Max Thinking |
|---|---|---|---|
Capabilities | 83 | +17 | |
Pricing | 2 | -2 | |
Context window size | 95 | +9 | |
Recency | 100 | -- | |
Output Capacity | 80 | +5 | |
| Overall Result | 3 wins | of 5 | 1 wins |
8
days higher
6
days
16
days higher
Alibaba
Alibaba
Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15 saves you $169.00/month
That's $2028.00/year compared to Qwen3 Max Thinking at your current usage level of 100K calls/month.
| Metric | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15 | Qwen3 Max Thinking | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall Score | 40 | 40 | -- |
| Rank | #140 | #142 | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15 |
| Quality Rank | #140 | #142 | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15 |
| Adoption Rank | #140 | #142 | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15 |
| Parameters | -- | -- | -- |
| Context Window | 1000K | 262K | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15 |
| Pricing | $0.26/$1.56/M | $0.78/$3.90/M | -- |
| Signal Scores | |||
| Capabilities | 83 | 67 | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15 |
| Pricing | 2 | 4 | Qwen3 Max Thinking |
| Context window size | 95 | 86 | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15 |
| Recency | 100 | 100 | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15 |
| Output Capacity | 80 | 75 | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15 |
Our score (0-100) is driven by benchmark performance (90%) from Arena Elo ratings, MMLU, GPQA, HumanEval, SWE-bench, and 15+ standardized evaluations. Capabilities and context window serve as tiebreakers (10%). Here's what the scores mean for these two models:
Scores 40/100 (rank #140), placing it in the top 52% of all 290 models tracked.
Scores 40/100 (rank #142), placing it in the top 51% of all 290 models tracked.
With only a 0-point gap, these models are in the same performance tier. The practical difference in output quality is minimal - your choice should depend on pricing, latency requirements, and specific feature needs.
Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15 offers 61% better value per quality point. At 1M tokens/day, you'd spend $27.30/month with Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15 vs $70.20/month with Qwen3 Max Thinking - a $42.90 monthly difference.
Both models have comparable response speeds. For most applications, the latency difference is negligible.
When latency matters most: Interactive chatbots, IDE code completion, real-time translation, and user-facing applications where response time directly impacts experience. For batch processing, background summarization, or offline analysis, latency is less critical.
Code generation & review
Higher benchmark score (0/100) indicates stronger performance on coding tasks like generating functions, debugging, and refactoring
Customer support chatbot
Faster response time (speed score 0/100) is critical for user-facing chat. Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15 also offers lower per-token costs for high-volume support
Long document analysis
Larger context window (1000K tokens) can process longer documents, contracts, and research papers in a single pass
Batch data extraction
Lower output pricing ($1.56/M) reduces costs when processing thousands of records daily
Creative writing & content
Higher overall composite score (40/100) correlates with better nuance, coherence, and style in long-form content
Image understanding & OCR
Supports vision input - can analyze screenshots, diagrams, photos, and scanned documents directly
Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15 and Qwen3 Max Thinking are extremely close in overall performance (only 0 points apart). Your best choice depends entirely on which specific strengths matter most for your use case.
Best for Quality
Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15
Marginally better benchmark scores; both are excellent
Best for Cost
Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15
61% lower pricing; better value at scale
Best for Reliability
Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15
Higher uptime and faster response speeds
Best for Prototyping
Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15
Stronger community support and better developer experience
Best for Production
Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15
Wider enterprise adoption and proven at scale
by Alibaba
| Capability | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15 | Qwen3 Max Thinking |
|---|---|---|
| Vision (Image Input)differs | ||
| Function Calling | ||
| Streaming | ||
| JSON Mode | ||
| Reasoning | ||
| Web Search | ||
| Image Output |
Alibaba
Alibaba
Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15 saves you $3.74/month
That's 62% cheaper than Qwen3 Max Thinking at 1,000 tokens/request and 100 requests/day.
Assumes 60% input / 40% output token ratio per request. Actual costs may vary based on your usage pattern.
| Parameter | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15 | Qwen3 Max Thinking |
|---|---|---|
| Context Window | 1M | 262K |
| Max Output Tokens | 65,536 | 32,768 |
| Open Source | No | No |
| Created | Feb 16, 2026 | Feb 9, 2026 |
Both Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15 and Qwen3 Max Thinking score 40/100, making them extremely close competitors. Choose based on pricing, provider ecosystem, or specific capability requirements.
Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15 is ranked #140 and Qwen3 Max Thinking is ranked #142 out of 290+ AI models. Rankings use a composite score combining benchmark performance (90%) from MMLU, GPQA, HumanEval, SWE-bench, and 15+ standardized evaluations, with capabilities and context window as tiebreakers (10%). Scores update hourly.
Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15 is cheaper at $1.56/M output tokens vs Qwen3 Max Thinking's $3.90/M output tokens - 2.5x more expensive. Input token pricing: Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15 at $0.26/M vs Qwen3 Max Thinking at $0.78/M.
Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15 has a larger context window of 1,000,000 tokens compared to Qwen3 Max Thinking's 262,144 tokens. A larger context window means the model can process longer documents and conversations.