Qwen3 235B A22B vs Qwen3.7 Max: which is better for agents?

Qwen3.7 Max scores higher on output quality (6.3/10 vs 3.8/10), while Qwen3 235B A22B is the cheaper option. Qwen3 235B A22B is best for self-hosted setups that need a mid-size open-weight model; Qwen3.7 Max is best for fast, long-context general work in Qwen-based stacks. Live community votes on this page show what people actually prefer.

Is Qwen3 235B A22B cheaper than Qwen3.7 Max?

Qwen3 235B A22B is cheaper: roughly $0.23 vs $2.36 per 1M tokens (blended). Qwen3 235B A22B: $0.09 in · $0.55 out / 1M tokens. Qwen3.7 Max: $1.48 in · $4.42 out / 1M tokens.

Can I switch between Qwen3 235B A22B and Qwen3.7 Max in the same agent?

Yes. Model-agnostic agents (Cline, Aider, OpenClaw, Hermes Agent, Kilo Code, OpenCode) let you swap models per task. Many people route hard tasks to the stronger model and routine work to the cheaper one.

Model comparison 2026

Qwen3 235B A22B vs Qwen3.7 Max

Qwen3 235B A22B

Alibaba (Qwen) · Budget · Open weights

$0.23/1M · 262K ctx

Qwen3.7 Max

Alibaba (Qwen) · Frontier · Proprietary

$2.36/1M · 1M ctx

Community vote

Pick a winner in each dimension. You can change your vote any time.

Output Quality

Correctness and depth of what it produces

Agentic Ability

Tool calls, instruction-following, and multi-step tasks

Speed

Tokens per second and time-to-first-token

Value for Money

How much capability you get per dollar

Reliability

Consistent results: fewer refusals, loops and format breaks

Specs and pricing side by side

Spec

Qwen3 235B

Qwen3.7 Max

Maker

Alibaba (Qwen)

Blended price / 1M

$0.23

$2.36

Input / output

$0.09 in · $0.55 out / 1M tokens

$1.48 in · $4.42 out / 1M tokens

Context window

262K

Open weights

Yes

Tool use

Yes

Reasoning

Yes

Output Quality

3.8

6.3

Agentic Ability

4.4

4.9

Speed

6.1

9.2

Value for Money

5.9

4.7

Reliability

8.4

Pricing and capabilities synced from the OpenRouter catalogue. Scores are editorial (0–10).

Verdict: Qwen3 235B or Qwen3.7 Max?

Updated 2026-10-14

Choose Qwen3 235B A22B if you want self-hosted setups that need a mid-size open-weight model. Choose Qwen3.7 Max if you want fast, long-context general work in Qwen-based stacks.

In our editorial scoring, Qwen3.7 Max leads in 3 of five dimensions (output quality, agentic ability and speed), while Qwen3 235B A22B leads in 1. On price, Qwen3 235B A22B runs about $0.23 per 1M tokens (blended) and is open-weight; Qwen3.7 Max is about $2.36 and proprietary.

Where Qwen3 235B falls short

Artificial Analysis estimates 12 on its Intelligence Index
No cache discount at OpenRouter's listed price

Full Qwen3 235B breakdown →

Where Qwen3.7 Max falls short

Weak on long agentic tasks (1.5% in Artificial Analysis's Terminal-Bench 4.0 run)
Costs more per request than Claude Sonnet 5.5 at OpenRouter's listed price

Full Qwen3.7 Max breakdown →

Current Claude, GPT, Gemini and open models are included with Standard Compute

Standard Compute

Current frontier models Claude Fable 5.1 · GPT-6 Astra