Models / Qwen/ Qwen3.5-9B

Qwen3.5-9B

Qwen · released Feb 27, 2026 · Qwen/Qwen3.5-9B

Input: text, images and video. Output: text.InputOutput
Type
Open weightsApache License 2.0
Params
9.7B
Context
262K

about 197K words of context

Our take

Written Aug 2, 2026

Alibaba's 9-billion-parameter small downloadable model has a permissive Apache licence and an unusually large request limit for its size. It is designed for consumer GPUs and cheap hosted inference.

Who should pick it

Use this for local inference on 8–12GB video-memory GPUs, or cheap hosted multimodal input. Pick it for long-context small-model workloads. Skip it if you need measured quality scores or complex reasoning beyond the reach of a 9.7-billion-parameter model.

The case for it

  • 9.7 billion parameters: a standard compressed size fits in 8GB-class video memory for local inference.
  • Text, image and video input in a small model.
  • 262,144-token request limit matches models many times larger.

The case against it

  • No benchmark scores yet, so there is no measured quality data.
  • Expect weaker complex reasoning than 24-billion-parameter peers.
00

How good is it?

We hold no score for this model.

We look for every model we track on every board we watch, and none of them has turned up Qwen3.5-9B — so there is no intelligence, coding, agentic or writing score to show you, not a low one, none.

The boards we watch →

01

Can you run it yourself?

Fits in memory
weights load entirely on the card
Spills to system RAM
some weights offload; much slower
Too large
will not load even with offload
est
size is calculated; the verdict could change by 10%

Comfortable fit

A card many people ownFits in memory

GeForce RTX 4090 · 24 GB

Weights at Q4_K_M6.1 / 24 GBest
Spare memory15 GB spare
Usable context66K of 262K
Decode speed137 tok/sest

Room to spare. 15 GB spare means a 10% error in the size would not change the answer.

One step upFits in memory

GeForce RTX 5090 · 32 GB

Weights at Q4_K_M6.1 / 32 GBest
Spare memory23 GB spare
Usable context131K of 262K
Decode speed244 tok/sest

Room to spare. 23 GB spare means a 10% error in the size would not change the answer.

On a MacFits in memory

Apple M1 (8-core GPU) · 16 GB

Weights at Q4_K_M6.1 / 16 GBest
Spare memory4.2 GB spare
Usable context33K of 262K
Decode speed8 tok/sest

Room to spare. 4.2 GB spare means a 10% error in the size would not change the answer.

Your hardware
Checking your profile…

Memory use by level

Against a 24 GB card.

Q4_K_M
recommended
6.1 GBest
Fits in memory
Q5_K_M
7.2 GBest
Fits in memory
Q8_0
10.7 GBest
Fits in memory

All 3 sizes here are calculated, not measured. We hold no measured file for this model, so each size comes from the parameter count and every verdict above inherits that uncertainty.

Check against your own machine → · All 71 devices, with every size →

02

Or rent it from someone else

Cheapest published offer

Cheapest of 7 live listings. Picked at the widest standard context we hold, within one quantisation slice, so the numbers beside it are a price one host actually charges.

per 1M tokens
$0.10 in / $0.15 out
Context served
262K
Throughput
Not measured
Current provider offers with price, context and prompt-privacy answers
ProviderIn / out per 1M tokensContextThroughputTrains on promptsLogs promptsZero retention
Venice AIfp8$0.10 / $0.15256K3 tok/sNoNoConfirmed
DeepInfrabfloat16$0.10 / $0.15262Knot measuredUnknownUnknownUnknown
DeepInfrabf16$0.10 / $0.15262K17 tok/sNoNoConfirmed
OpenRouter$0.10 / $0.15262Knot measuredUnknownUnknownUnknown
SiliconFlowfp8$0.10 / $0.15262K1 tok/sNoNoConfirmed
Together AI$0.17 / $0.25262K62 tok/sNoNoConfirmed
Parasailbf16$0.10 / $0.25262K10 tok/sNoNoConfirmed

Across the 7 listings we hold: 5 say they do not train on prompts, 0 say they do and 2 do not say. 5 appear in the zero-retention registry we check; the rest are unknown to us rather than confirmed either way.

What each host's API supports

From the parameter list each endpoint publishes. Streaming is omitted: nothing we hold reports it, for any model.

Supported
Not supported
Not published
host gave no parameter list
API features per host
ProviderTool callingJSON outputStrict schema
Venice AIfp8
DeepInfrabfloat16
DeepInfrabf16
OpenRouter
SiliconFlowfp8
Together AI
Parasailbf16

Tool calling: 5 of 7 listings say yes, 1 says no, 1 publishes no parameter list. JSON output: 6 of 7 listings say yes, 1 publishes no parameter list. Strict schema: 6 of 7 listings say yes, 1 publishes no parameter list.

03

Models people weigh against Qwen3.5-9B

04

When we formed this view

Dates behind this page

Jul 26, 2026ListedListed on LLMapfirst indexed by our pipeline
Feb 27, 2026AnnouncedQwen3.5-9B announced by Qwen

Prices last checked 35h ago

What we do not know about this model yet

  • We hold no measured file for it, so all 3 sizes on this page are calculated from the parameter count.
  • No board we watch has turned up a score, so we hold no quality figures at all.
  • 1 of 7 listings publish no parameter list, so what their API accepts is unknown to us.
  • Nothing we hold says whether an endpoint streams, so we do not show it either way.
  • 2 of 7 listings do not say whether they train on prompts.
  • We hold no cached-input rate for any of its listings.
05

Licence and identifiers

What the licence allowsApache License 2.0, what it allows commercially, and the identifiers you need to pull this model — its Hugging Face repo, our slug and a machine-readable card.

Licence

Apache License 2.0

permissiveCommercial use allowed

Fully permissive: commercial use, redistribution, and derivatives allowed. Requires attribution and a copy of the license. Includes an express patent grant.

Identifiers

Hugging Face
Qwen/Qwen3.5-9B
Architecture
Dense
Modality record
text+image+video->text
Catalogue slug
qwen-qwen3-5-9b

Machine-readable model card (omc.json) →

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