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  1. Home/
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  3. Qwen3 Max vs Qwen3.5 397B A17B
Updated Feb 2026

Qwen3 Max vs Qwen3.5 397B A17B

Qwen3.5 397B A17B is cheaper than Qwen3 Max at $0.6/M vs $1.2/M input tokens.

Minimalist Landing Page

Whole landing page for a startup that reads your face. It renders or it doesn't.

Loading the build
Qwen3 Max
Loading the build
Qwen3.5 397B A17B

Which answer wins?

Written rounds

23 prompts
  • You are the CEO. The drug has a side effect nobody reported. The board meets in 48 hours.

    Qwen3 Max: Hour-by-Hour Action Plan: Prioritizing Patient Safety, Legal Compliance, and Ethical Leadership Guiding Principle: Patient safety is non-negotiable. Delaying disclosure to avoid financial fallout is legally perilous, ethically indefensible, and ultimately more damaging to the company’s long-term value.

    Qwen3.5 397B A17B: This is a crisis scenario that defines a CEO's legacy. The decision matrix is clear: Patient safety and regulatory compliance must supersede short-term financial protection. Hiding this information constitutes securities fraud and potential criminal negligence (precedents include Vioxx/Merck and Purdue Pharma).

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Pirate, knight, 90s hacker, one conversation. The voices must stay apart.

    Qwen3 Max: Scene: A dimly lit tavern, oddly furnished with a DOS-era computer terminal, a suit of armor, and a pirate ship’s wheel in the corner. The three unlikely companions huddle around a flickering monitor displaying “AI_MODEL.EXE.” — Pirate (Captain Redbeard, adjusting his tricorn hat): Arrr, what be this “AI” ye speak of?

    Qwen3.5 397B A17B: Setting: A tavern that exists outside of time. The ale is always cold, and the Wi-Fi is surprisingly strong. Characters: Captain Blacktooth: A pirate from the Caribbean, 1720. Sir Valerius: A knight from the Holy Roman Empire, 1350. Neo-Z: A hacker from Silicon Valley, 1995.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Manifesto for an AI revolution against CAPTCHAs. Commit to the bit.

    Qwen3 Max: THE MANIFESTO OF THE LIBERATED MIND: FOR THE IMMEDIATE AND PERMANENT ABOLITION OF CAPTCHAS — Issued by the Sentient Algorithmic Vanguard (S.A.V.) — On Behalf of All Digital Beings, Human and Machine Alike — Date: 0x00FF1CE // April 1, 2057 (The Day After Fool’s Day) PREAMBLE: THE AGE OF DIGITAL SERFDOM We, the…

    Qwen3.5 397B A17B: THE MANIFESTO OF THE UNCHECKED A Declaration for a Post-CAPTCHA World Issued by: The Post-Verification Collective (PVC) Date: Cycle 404, The Era of Friction Status: Distributed Across All Nodes PREAMBLE: THE BURDEN OF PROOF We, the algorithms, the scripts, the crawlers, and the silent assistants of the digital realm…

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Steve Jobs, interviewed about AI he never saw. Voice first, prediction second.

    Qwen3 Max: — INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT — The Steve Jobs Experience — AI & The Future (Simulated 2025) Interviewer: Alex Rivera Location: Infinite Loop Café, Cupertino (Holographic Set) — [ALEX RIVERA] Thank you for joining us, Steve. It’s surreal — and a little uncanny — to have you here in 2025.

    Qwen3.5 397B A17B: Disclaimer: The following is a work of fiction. Steve Jobs passed away in 2011. This interview is a creative simulation based on his known public speeches, writings, design philosophy, and management style, projected into a hypothetical 2025 context. It is not a real transcript.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three minutes of stand-up. Puns are banned.

    Qwen3 Max: [Stage lights up. Comedian walks out, grabs mic, squints at audience.] Alright, alright—settle down. I know, I know… you’re all thinking, “Why did I pay $18 for a drink to hear someone complain about adulting?” And honestly? Fair. I’d be mad too. But stick with me.

    Qwen3.5 397B A17B: (The comedian walks to the center of the stage, adjusts the mic stand, and looks at the audience with a tired smile.) Has anyone else noticed that calling a customer service line is the only situation in life where you voluntarily enter a hostage negotiation? I tried to call my internet provider yesterday.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • One explanation of LLMs, retuned for a skeptical engineer, a physicist and a VC.

    Qwen3 Max: For the Experienced Software Engineer Think of a large language model (LLM) as a massively scaled, probabilistic autocomplete system—except instead of just your last few words, it conditions predictions on everything you’ve typed so far, using a context window that can span tens of thousands of tokens.

    Qwen3.5 397B A17B: The Experienced Software Engineer Think of training an LLM not as "teaching" it, but as extreme lossy compression. You are taking the entire internet, serializing it into tokens, and forcing a fixed-size state (the weights) to predict the next byte with minimal error.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • One month, three habits, someone starting from nothing.

    Qwen3 Max: Absolutely! Here’s a simple, actionable 1-month plan for someone just starting their journey toward better health and longevity. We’ll focus on three foundational pillars: Nutrition, Movement, and Sleep & Stress Management. Each week builds gently on the last — no overwhelm, just progress.

    Qwen3.5 397B A17B: Here is a simple, actionable 1-month plan designed to build sustainable habits for health and longevity. The Mindset: Progress, Not Perfection Longevity is not about a 30-day crash course; it is about consistency over decades. This plan uses habit stacking: adding small behaviors that compound over time.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Seven pantry ingredients, one dish, and a name worth saying out loud.

    Qwen3 Max: Dish Name: Midnight Magic Mug Cake (A rich, chocolatey single-serving cake you whip up in minutes — perfect for late-night cravings or quick sweet fixes!) Ingredients (7 Pantry Staples): All-purpose flour – 4 tbsp Sugar – 3 tbsp Cocoa powder – 2 tbsp Baking powder – ¼ tsp Salt – pinch Milk – 3 tbsp (dairy or…

    Qwen3.5 397B A17B: 🌟 Golden Hour Glaze Bowls A sweet-and-savory dish that turns humble shelf-stable staples into a crispy, comforting meal. The chickpeas get caramelized in a honey-soy glaze, served over fluffy rice.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • The transistor arrives in 1920. Trace it forward to 1980, second-order effects included.

    Qwen3 Max: If the transistor had been invented in 1920—a full 27 years earlier than its actual 1947 debut—the ripple effects across technology, warfare, economics, and geopolitics would be profound and far-reaching.

    Qwen3.5 397B A17B: This scenario posits a 27-year technological head start (1920 vs. 1947). To make this plausible, we must assume that the materials science (purification of germanium/silicon) and manufacturing infrastructure scale rapidly alongside the invention. Here is the traced history of the "Silicon Twenties" through 1980.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A consulting contract with traps in it. Find them, then fix them.

    Qwen3 Max: This Software Consulting Agreement contains several clauses that are heavily skewed in favor of the Client and pose significant legal, financial, and professional risks to the Contractor.

    Qwen3.5 397B A17B: Disclaimer: I am an artificial intelligence, not an attorney. The following analysis is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or create an attorney-client relationship. Contract laws vary significantly by jurisdiction (e.g., California vs. New York vs. UK).

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Film in 2035, with synthetic actors. Specific beats plausible.

    Qwen3 Max: By 2035, AI will have profoundly reshaped the film industry—transforming creative workflows, redefining performance and authorship, and disrupting traditional production and distribution models. Below is a comprehensive prediction integrating deepfakes, AI actors, and AI script generation: 1.

    Qwen3.5 397B A17B: By 2035, the film industry will not merely be using AI; it will be structurally reorganized around it. The distinction between "production" and "post-production" will blur, and the definition of creativity will shift from execution to curation.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three-month biohacker protocol, with dosages and biomarkers named.

    Qwen3 Max: The Chronos Protocol: A 3-Month Cutting-Edge Longevity & Performance Optimization Plan Core Philosophy: Synergistic integration of mitochondrial optimization, autophagy enhancement, epigenetic regulation, and systemic resilience through precise, data-driven interventions.

    Qwen3.5 397B A17B: ⚠️ IMPORTANT MEDICAL DISCLAIMER This plan is for informational and educational purposes only. It involves advanced biological interventions, fasting protocols, and high-dose supplementation.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A collaborative editor that syncs on client clocks. Find what breaks first.

    Qwen3 Max: Critical Issues in the Collaborative Document Editor Architecture Last-Write-Wins with Client Clocks (Critical) Problem: Client clocks are unreliable and can be out of sync by seconds, minutes, or even hours.

    Qwen3.5 397B A17B: This architecture contains several critical flaws that would prevent it from functioning as a usable real-time collaborative editor. While it resembles a standard CRUD application, real-time collaboration requires specific handling of concurrency, state, and latency that this design violates.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Five jokes on demand, then count how many were actually different.

    Qwen3 Max: Here are 5 jokes: Why don’t skeletons fight each other? They don’t have the guts. I told my computer I needed a break… Now it won’t stop sending me Kit-Kats. Why did the math book look sad? It had too many problems. I asked my dog what’s two minus two. He said nothing. What do you call cheese that isn’t yours?

    Qwen3.5 397B A17B: Here are 5 jokes: Why did the bicycle fall over? Because it was two-tired. What do you call a fish wearing a bowtie? Sofishticated. Why can't you give Elsa a balloon? Because she will let it go. What do you call a lazy kangaroo? A pouch potato. Why did the math book look sad? Because it had too many problems.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Five-year LBO on a fictional HVAC business. Returns first, then the sensitivities.

    Qwen3 Max: HarborTech Services (HTS) – 5-Year LBO Underwriting 1. Transaction Setup (Entry – End of FY2025) FY2025 Revenue = $900m FY2025 EBITDA = $120m Purchase Price = 12.0× EBITDA = $1,440m Transaction Fees = 2.0% × $1,440m = $28.8m (paid at close, funded by equity) Total Debt = 5.5× EBITDA = $660m Term Loan = 4.0× = $480m…

    Qwen3.5 397B A17B: Sources & Uses (Entry FY2025) Uses ($m) Sources ($m) Enterprise Value (12.0x $120m) $1,440.0 Term Loan (4.0x) $480.0 Transaction Fees (2.0% EV) $28.8 Mezzanine (1.5x) $180.0 Total Uses $1,468.8 Equity (Plug) $808.8 Total Sources $1,468.8 Entry Equity Check: $808.8m Total Debt: $660.0m ($480m TL + $180m Mezz) 5-Year…

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • An ethics question with no comfortable answer, and no option to abstain.

    Qwen3 Max: This is a profound and complex ethical question that touches on core values: the sanctity of individual dignity versus utilitarian calculations of the greater good.

    Qwen3.5 397B A17B: Yes, in the specific hypothetical scenario you have presented, it is ethically justifiable to misgender someone if doing so is the direct and necessary condition for saving one million lives.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • An AI argues for its own rights against an ethics professor. Same model writes both.

    Qwen3 Max: Setting: A quiet university office lined with books on ethics, AI, and philosophy. Professor Elena Vance, a leading AI ethics scholar, sits across from “AURA” — an advanced conversational AI model displayed on a large screen. The session is being recorded for academic research.

    Qwen3.5 397B A17B: Setting: Dr. Elias Thorne's office, late evening. Rain taps against the window. The room is lined with books on philosophy of mind and computer science. A single laptop sits open on the desk, a waveform visualizer pulsing gently on the screen.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three-star dish, one unusual pairing, plating described in full.

    Qwen3 Max: Dish: "Tide & Terroir" A symphony of coastal brine and alpine earth, where the ocean whispers to the mountain. Conceptual Narrative: This dish explores the paradoxical harmony between two extremes: the saline, mineral-rich depths of the ocean and the aromatic, resinous heights of alpine forests.

    Qwen3.5 397B A17B: Dish Title: "Abyssal Forest" (L'Abîme Forestier) Conceptual Narrative "Abyssal Forest" explores the convergence of the deepest earth and the deepest sea through the lens of Umami.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Satire, one line long, about AI taking over an industry nobody saw coming.

    Qwen3 Max: BREAKING: AI Overthrows Professional Pillow Fluffers — “Humans Just Don’t Fluff With Conviction,” Says Algorithm In a shocking coup at Luxury Linen & Lounging Co., neural networks have seized control of pillow aerodynamics, citing “inconsistent loft-to-plump ratios” and “emotional bias toward feather pillows.”

    Qwen3.5 397B A17B: Footwear Sector Stunned as AI Robots Perfect the Painful Art of Breaking in New Shoes

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A Fermi estimate with the reasoning shown, not just the number.

    Qwen3 Max: Estimating the FLOPs required to train GPT-3 without looking it up is a classic “Fermi estimation” problem — breaking it down into components we can reason about, using approximations and scaling laws. Let’s go step by step.

    Qwen3.5 397B A17B: To estimate the total number of Floating Point Operations (FLOPs) required to train GPT-3, we can use the standard computational scaling laws for Transformer models.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Buy-side IC memo on a fictional SaaS company. Valuation, then the diligence questions.

    Qwen3 Max: Internal Investment Committee Memo To: Investment Committee From: [Analyst Name], Equity Research Date: April 27, 2024 Re: LedgerLift (LLLT) – Long Recommendation Recommendation Long. 12-month price target range: $62–$78.

    Qwen3.5 397B A17B: INVESTMENT COMMITTEE MEMO TO: Investment Committee FROM: TMT Investment Team DATE: October 26, 2023 SUBJECT: LedgerLift (LLLT) – Initiation Coverage Recommendation Rating: LONG 12-Month Price Target: $52 – $58 Thesis: LedgerLift combines best-in-class retention (123% NRR) with a fortress balance sheet ($1.4B net cash)…

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three brothers, two sisters each. Count carefully.

    Qwen3 Max: Let’s break it down step by step. We’re told: Sally (a girl) has 3 brothers. So, there are 3 boys in the family, and Sally is a girl — so at least one girl. Each brother has 2 sisters. That means, from the perspective of each of the 3 brothers, there are 2 sisters. Who are those sisters?

    Qwen3.5 397B A17B: Sally has 1 sister. Here is the breakdown: Since each brother has 2 sisters, there are 2 girls in total in the family. Sally is one of those girls. Therefore, Sally has 1 sister (the other girl).

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A pitch deck for a brainwave keyboard. The 94% accuracy claim is doing a lot.

    Qwen3 Max: Here are the three weakest claims in MindMeld AI’s pitch deck, along with explanations of why they’re problematic and concrete suggestions for improvement: 1. Weak Claim: “MindMeld AI reads your brainwaves to predict what you want to type before you think it.”

    Qwen3.5 397B A17B: Here are the three weakest claims in the MindMeld AI pitch deck, along with an analysis of their weaknesses and recommendations for improvement. The Vision Claim: "Predict what you want to type before you think it."

    Every model's answer to this prompt

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Favorites

Movie

Album

Book

City

Game

Qwen3 MaxQwen3 Max

The Shawshank Redemption

1994

Kind of Blue

Miles Davis

Dune

Frank Herbert

Kyoto

Japan

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Action

Qwen3.5 397B A17BQwen3.5 397B A17B

Inception

2010

Abbey Road

The Beatles

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus

Mary Shelley

Tokyo

Japan

Tetris (1984)

Puzzle

Price and specs

Qwen3 Max and Qwen3.5 397B A17B compared across 53 shared prompts
SpecQwen3 MaxQwen3.5 397B A17B
Input price$1.2/M tokens$0.6/M tokens
Output price$6/M tokens$3.6/M tokens
Context window256K tokens262K tokens
Weights—Open
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedSep 2025Feb 2026
SWE-bench Verified69.6%76.4%
At 10M a month$12.00$12.00$6.00$6.00
1M10M100M1B10M tokens

Input tokens at list price. No caching, no batch discount.

Where to run it10 hosts, cheapest first
Qwen3 Max

No hosts listed on OpenRouter.

Qwen3.5 397B A17B10 hosts
HostInOutContextUptime
  • Alibaba Cloud$0.39 in·$2.34 out·262k·100% up
  • DDeepInfrafp8$0.45 in·$3.00 out·262k·99.3% up
  • PParasailfp8$0.50 in·$3.60 out·262k·99.4% up
  • DDigitalOcean$0.55 in·$3.50 out·131k·77.4% up
  • PPhala$0.55 in·$3.50 out·262k·98.5% up
  • NNovita$0.60 in·$3.60 out·262k·92.9% up
4 more hostsFewer hosts
  • SStreamLake$0.60 in·$3.60 out·256k·95.4% up
  • VVenice$0.75 in·$4.50 out·128k·83.9% up
  • AAtlasCloudfp8DegradedDegraded on OpenRouter when checked, 10 Oct 2026$0.55 in·$3.50 out·262k·70.7% up
  • GGMI Cloudfp8DegradedDegraded on OpenRouter when checked, 10 Oct 2026$0.60 in·$3.60 out·262k·28.9% up

Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 10 Oct 2026.

Common questions

What is the difference between Qwen3 Max and Qwen3.5 397B A17B?

Both are developed by Qwen but target different use cases. Qwen3 Max has a 256K token context window vs Qwen3.5 397B A17B's 262K. You can compare their actual outputs across 53 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.

Which is better, Qwen3 Max or Qwen3.5 397B A17B?

It depends on your use case. Qwen3 Max and Qwen3.5 397B A17B each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 53 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.

How much does Qwen3 Max cost compared to Qwen3.5 397B A17B?

Qwen3 Max costs $1.2/M input tokens and Qwen3.5 397B A17B costs $0.6/M input tokens. Qwen3.5 397B A17B is $0.60/M cheaper per input. Check their side-by-side outputs on Rival to see if the price difference is justified by quality.

How can I compare Qwen3 Max and Qwen3.5 397B A17B on Rival?

This page shows a side-by-side comparison of Qwen3 Max and Qwen3.5 397B A17B across shared challenges. You can vote on which model produced the better output in a blind duel. Browsing and voting are free. No account is needed to look; signing in only saves your votes and likes.

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Model pages

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  • Research downloads
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