qwen3.5
qwen3.5 is Alibaba's model at $0.10 input and $0.15 output per million tokens, with a 1000K context window. On a typical 3:1 input-to-output mix that blends to roughly $0.11 per million tokens, placing it in the budget band of the 68 models tracked here — cheaper than 93% of them.
By price, qwen3.5 ranks 6th cheapest of 68 on input and 6th on output. Its quality score of 91 ranks 17th of 68, and on value (quality score ÷ output price) it ranks 3rd of 68. Its blended rate sits 96% below the catalog average.
In real billing terms: a support chatbot handling 50,000 turns a month (2,000 input / 500 output tokens each) costs about $14 per month on qwen3.5, while a RAG workload of 20,000 queries (8,000 input / 800 output tokens each) runs about $18. Because output is priced 1.5× input here, long-generation tasks scale cost fastest — cap output length before you optimise anything else.
A 1000K context window holds roughly 1,333 pages of A4 text (at ~750 tokens per page), ranking 22nd of 68 here. That is enough to drop in an entire technical manual or several source files at once, which suits long-document summarization and codebase-wide analysis. Output runs at about 85 tok/s (42nd fastest of 68), acceptable interactively, though long responses will feel slow.
We track 6 Alibaba models, and qwen3.5's blended rate sits 85% below that provider's average. Among the models tracked here it is already one of the cheapest options at this quality level. Going the other way, deepseek-reasoner-v4 scores 92 on quality for about 383% more.
The closest model in Alibaba's line-up is qwen-turbo ($0.05 input / $0.20 output, quality 74). Against it, qwen3.5 scores 17 points higher on quality, runs 155 tok/s slower (about 65%), costs 22% more blended. When two models sit this close on price, the deciding factor is usually the quality ceiling — run both against your real prompts before picking.
Estimated monthly cost
Monthly API spend across four common workloads, next to the cheapest model we track.
| Workload | Usage assumption | This model | Cheapest model |
|---|---|---|---|
| Support chatbot | 2,000 input / 500 output tokens per turn, 50,000 turns per month | $14 | $3.00 |
| RAG document Q&A | 8,000 input / 800 output tokens per query, 20,000 queries per month | $18 | $3.84 |
| Coding assistant | 12,000 input / 2,000 output tokens per request, 10,000 requests per month | $15 | $3.20 |
| Batch summarization | 4,000 input / 400 output tokens per item, 200,000 items per month | $92 | $19 |
Derived directly from the rates on this page. Excludes prompt caching, batch discounts and free tiers.
How it compares
The alternatives worth benchmarking alongside it, from the same dataset.
| Model | Provider | Blended /1M | Quality | Price delta |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| qwen3.5 | Alibaba | $0.11 | 91 | — |
| deepseek-reasoner-v4Higher quality | DeepSeek | $0.54 | 92 | +383% |
| qwen-turboSame provider | Alibaba | $0.088 | 74 | -22% |
| qwen3.5-flashBest value overall | Alibaba | $0.055 | 82 | -51% |
Best for
Modalities
Where it fits — and where it doesn't
Good fit
- Coding: writing, refactoring and debugging across multi-file project context.
- Reasoning: multi-step decomposition, planning and tasks that need rigorous inference.
- Long documents: a 1000K window ingests a full contract, paper or large codebase in one pass.
- High-volume, cost-sensitive batch work: low rates suit classification, tagging and summarization at scale.
- Multimodal input: handles images, screenshots and scanned documents directly.
Poor fit
- No obvious disqualifiers — still benchmark on your own data before committing.
Frequently asked questions
How much does the qwen3.5 API cost?
qwen3.5 costs $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens. On a 3:1 input-to-output mix that blends to about $0.11 per million tokens.
What does qwen3.5 cost per month?
It depends on volume. Using the four worked scenarios on this page: a support chatbot runs about $14/month, RAG document Q&A about $18/month, a coding assistant about $15/month, and batch summarization about $92/month. Plug your own token counts into the cost calculator for a tailored figure.
How large is the qwen3.5 context window?
1000K tokens — roughly 1,333 pages of A4 text at ~750 tokens per page, ranking 22nd of the 68 models tracked here.
What is qwen3.5 best suited for?
Tagged use cases: coding, reasoning, long-context. Coding: writing, refactoring and debugging across multi-file project context. Less suitable: No obvious disqualifiers — still benchmark on your own data before committing.
How current is this qwen3.5 pricing?
Pricing here was last verified on 2026-08-06 against OpenRouter. llmprice.app runs a daily collection job, but providers can change rates between runs — confirm against Alibaba's official pricing page before you commit.
Estimate the real cost of this model
Bring tokens per request and monthly volume into the calculator to compare total model costs.
Related models
Continue by provider and use case.
qwen3.5-plus
qwen3.5-flash
Pricing, speed and quality scores change over time. Confirm official documentation before production use.