Alibaba Unveils Qwen3.5-Plus, Undercutting Gemini 3 Pro on Cost
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Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. on Monday released its latest open-source artificial intelligence model, saying the system matches the performance of Google’s Gemini 3 Pro at a fraction of the cost.
The Hangzhou-based technology company introduced Qwen3.5-Plus on Feb. 16 and made it immediately available on its proprietary platforms and open-source communities including Hugging Face. Alibaba said the model’s application programming interface, or API, is priced at 0.8 yuan ($0.12) per million tokens, about one-eighteenth the cost of Gemini 3 Pro. The company added that it plans to roll out a more powerful flagship model, Qwen3.5-Max, along with other variants in the near future.
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- Alibaba launched Qwen3.5-Plus, an AI model matching Google’s Gemini 3 Pro’s performance at 1/18th the cost (0.8 yuan per million tokens).
- Qwen3.5-Plus uses 397 billion parameters (17 billion active), surpasses GPT-5.2 and Claude 4.5 in benchmark tests, and has advanced visual, agent, and coding capabilities.
- Chinese AI rivals ByteDance, Zhipu AI, MiniMax, and Moonshot AI also released new models, intensifying domestic competition during Lunar New Year 2024.
- Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
- Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has released its new open-source AI model, Qwen3.5-Plus, which performs similarly to Google's Gemini 3 Pro at a much lower cost. It features a multimodal architecture, expanded training data in English and Chinese, and enhanced "agent" capabilities. The company plans to release a more powerful flagship model, Qwen3.5-Max, soon.
- ByteDance Ltd.
- ByteDance Ltd. is a major player in China's AI industry. During the recent Lunar New Year holiday, the company upgraded its systems, joining a rush to narrow the gap with U.S. leaders in complex reasoning and autonomous agent capabilities. ByteDance launched its Doubao-Seed-2.0 series for large-scale production environments and Seedance 2.0, a video-generation model known for realistic human imagery.
- Zhipu AI
- Zhipu AI is a Chinese AI company that upgraded its systems around the Lunar New Year holiday, aiming to compete with U.S. leaders in complex reasoning and autonomous agent capabilities. On February 12, Zhipu AI released GLM-5, an open-source model that it claims ranks fourth globally, surpassing Google's Gemini 3 Pro.
- Moonshot AI
- Moonshot AI (月之暗面) is a startup that unveiled its K2.5 model on January 27. This model features video comprehension and improved agent performance, contributing to the wave of AI advancements during China's Spring Festival period.
- MiniMax
- On February 13, MiniMax introduced its M2.5 model, which is designed with a focus on productivity applications. This launch was part of a series of announcements from various Chinese AI companies during the Spring Festival period, indicating a push to advance their AI capabilities.
- Jan. 27, 2026：
- Moonshot AI unveiled its K2.5 model, featuring video comprehension and improved agent performance.
- Feb. 12, 2026：
- Zhipu AI released its open-source GLM-5 model.
- Feb. 12, 2026：
- ByteDance launched Seedance 2.0, a video-generation model.
- Feb. 13, 2026：
- MiniMax introduced its M2.5 model, emphasizing productivity applications.
- Feb. 14, 2026：
- ByteDance launched its Doubao-Seed-2.0 series for large-scale production environments.
- Feb. 15, 2026：
- The Lunar New Year holiday started.
- Feb. 16, 2026：
- Alibaba introduced Qwen3.5-Plus and made it available on its platforms and open-source communities.
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