Alibaba's next-gen AI is coming. Enhanced reasoning, 2M+ token context, and open-source access. Track Qwen 3.5's development and see why it matters for developers, businesses, and the future of AI.
Introduction
Alibaba's Qwen 2.5 already matches GPT-4. Qwen 3.5 aims to surpass it - with open access. Here's what that means for developers, businesses, and the AI landscape.
Qwen 2.5 already achieved 89.4 on Arena-Hard, beating GPT-4o's 80.2. Qwen 3.5 is built to push this lead further - especially in coding and mathematical reasoning where you need reliable results.
Following the o1/DeepSeek-R1 pattern, Qwen 3.5 will likely show its reasoning process. This means fewer errors in complex tasks - better for coding, analysis, and problem-solving that requires step-by-step logic.
Unlike Western models biased toward English, Qwen 3.5 supports 29+ languages natively. Build products that work equally well in Mandarin, Arabic, Spanish, or Hindi - without the translation quality loss.
Qwen 2.5's success wasn't an accident. Here's the foundation Qwen 3.5 will extend:
Capabilities
Based on Qwen 2.5's trajectory and insider developments, these are the capabilities that will set Qwen 3.5 apart from current models.
Qwen 2.5-Coder already achieved state-of-the-art results on coding benchmarks. Qwen 3.5 is expected to further enhance these capabilities with better repository-level understanding and more accurate code completion.
Building on Qwen 2.5-Math's success on the MATH benchmark (80+ score), Qwen 3.5 should deliver even better mathematical problem-solving capabilities through advanced reasoning chains.
Following Qwen 2.5-VL's spatial reasoning breakthroughs, Qwen 3.5 will likely include improved multimodal understanding for image analysis, video processing, and visual task automation.
Qwen 2.5-1M demonstrated the ability to process one million tokens. Qwen 3.5 may push this further while maintaining accuracy on long-document tasks like technical manual analysis.
With the ARTIST framework integration, Qwen 3.5 should excel at autonomous task execution, tool use, and multi-step workflow automation - making it ideal for AI agent development.
Qwen 3.5 will likely continue Alibaba's strategy of aggressive pricing and efficient architecture, making advanced AI accessible to businesses of all sizes through multiple deployment options.
Benchmark Comparison
Qwen 2.5 already beats GPT-4o on Arena-Hard (89.4 vs 80.2). Here's what the numbers mean for your choice of AI model - and where Qwen 3.5 takes the lead.
| Model | Context Window | Languages | Open Source | Coding Score | Math Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen 3.5 (Expected) | 128K - 2M+ | 29+ | Yes (Partial) | ~90 (est.) | ~85 (est.) |
| Qwen 2.5-Max | 128K | 29+ | No | 85+ | 80+ |
| GPT-4o | 128K | ~100 | No | ~85 | 76.6 |
| Claude 3.5 Sonnet | 200K | ~100 | No | ~80 | 71.1 |
| DeepSeek V3 | 64K | ~100 | Yes | ~75 | ~70 |
Western AI has dominated the conversation. Qwen 3.5 changes that - not by matching GPT-4, but by beating it while remaining open. Here's why that matters:
GPT-4 and Claude require expensive APIs. Qwen 3.5's open-weight versions run on your hardware, in your cloud, with your data. Zero per-token costs once you're set up.
When you do use Alibaba's hosted version, Qwen costs pennies compared to OpenAI's prices. For startups and high-volume applications, this difference changes your unit economics.
Training data from China, Asia, and the Global South means Qwen 3.5 handles diverse languages and cultural contexts better than US-centric models. Essential for global products.
Release History
Qwen 2.5 launched September 2024. Based on Alibaba's release patterns, here's the Qwen 3.5 timeline - and when to expect the announcement.
Alibaba releases the first Qwen models, establishing the foundation for the series with strong multilingual capabilities.
Improved performance with better reasoning and coding capabilities. Introduction of multiple model sizes.
Major milestone with 18T token training, 100+ models, and competitive benchmarks against GPT-4 and Claude.
Release of MoE model and aggressive pricing cuts (up to 97%) to compete with DeepSeek V3.
Anticipated release featuring enhanced reasoning, larger context windows, and potentially trillion-parameter scale for flagship models.
Applications
Not everyone needs Qwen 3.5. But if you're in these groups, the upcoming release could change how you work with AI.
Use Qwen 3.5-Coder for code generation, debugging, code reviews, and automated testing. Its repository-level understanding means it can work with your entire codebase, not just isolated snippets.
Deploy Qwen 3.5 on-premises for secure data processing, customer service automation, document analysis, and internal knowledge bases without sending data to external APIs.
Leverage Qwen 3.5's strong math and scientific reasoning for literature review, hypothesis generation, data analysis, and experimental design assistance.
Generate high-quality content across multiple languages, create marketing copy, write technical documentation, and produce creative work with Qwen 3.5's advanced language understanding.
Use Qwen 3.5 as a personalized tutor for mathematics, programming, and scientific concepts. Run it locally for free to avoid subscription costs.
With native support for 29+ languages, Qwen 3.5 enables true multilingual operations - from customer support to localization - without relying on translation tools.
Common Questions
Release date, pricing, hardware requirements, and whether it can actually compete with GPT-4. Answered here.