# Qwen3.5-9B vs Qwen3-VL-30B-A3B-Instruct (slim)

> Qwen3.5-9B scores 60.5 (C) to Qwen3-VL-30B-A3B-Instruct's 58 (C) for open-weight models you run yourself. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/qwen3-5-9b-vs-qwen3-vl-30b-a3b-instruct.md (~6,350 tokens) · this version ~430 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/qwen3-5-9b-vs-qwen3-vl-30b-a3b-instruct.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/qwen3-5-9b-vs-qwen3-vl-30b-a3b-instruct
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-10-21
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

Qwen3.5-9B scores 60.5 (C) on agent readiness against Qwen3-VL-30B-A3B-Instruct's 58 (C), and leads in 2 of 5 scored categories. Qwen3-VL-30B-A3B-Instruct leads on reach. Both do open-weight models you run yourself.

- Qwen3.5-9B: C 60.5, rank #53 of 100 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/qwen3-5-9b.min.md
- Qwen3-VL-30B-A3B-Instruct: C 58, rank #68 of 100 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/qwen3-vl-30b-a3b-instruct.min.md
- Qwen3.5-9B, good for Agents that want a small multimodal tool-calling cousin on a laptop or a 16 GB GPU, under a plain licence Ahead on Capability, 51 against 39; Agent interface, 70 against 60.
- Qwen3-VL-30B-A3B-Instruct, good for An agent with 24 GB or more to spare that wants a faster, stronger local reader of images, documents and video than the 8B model Ahead on Reach, 95 against 85. Also Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.0 against 2.5 out of 5.

| Category | Qwen3.5-9B | Qwen3-VL-30B-A3B-Instruct |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capability (35%) | 51 | 39 |
| Reach (25%) | 85 | 95 |
| Risk (20%) | 55 | 55 |
| Agent interface (10%) | 70 | 60 |
| Documentation and upkeep (10%) | 34 | 36 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Qwen3.5-9B | Qwen3-VL-30B-A3B-Instruct |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Last release | 2026-03-02 | 2025-11-01 |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (4) | 3/5 (4) |