Qwen 3.5 — Local AI Model by Alibaba Cloud

Written by Jakub Rusinowski · Last updated July 10, 2026

Alibaba's next-generation flagship family, released in waves from Feb 16 to Mar 2, 2026 (397B-A17B first, then the 122B/35B-A3B/27B tier on Feb 24, then the 0.8B–9B 'Small' series on Mar 2). Qwen 3.5 introduces a hybrid Gated DeltaNet + MoE architecture delivering frontier performance at a fraction of the compute, with native multimodal vision, ~256K context (extensible to 1M on the larger tiers), 201 languages, and Apache 2.0 license. Note: the 397B-A17B flagship is only available as a cloud-hosted Ollama tag (`:cloud`), not a true local download — everything 0.8B–122B-A10B has standard local Ollama tags.

Hardware Requirements

Qwen 3.5 0.8BMin 1 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · 256,000 ctx · ollama run qwen3.5:0.8b
Qwen 3.5 2BMin 2 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · 256,000 ctx · ollama run qwen3.5:2b
Qwen 3.5 4BMin 3 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · 256,000 ctx · ollama run qwen3.5:4b
Qwen 3.5 9BMin 6 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · 256,000 ctx · ollama run qwen3.5:9b
Qwen 3.5 27BMin 17 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · 262,144 ctx · ollama run qwen3.5:27b
Qwen 3.5 35B-A3BMin 22 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · 262,144 ctx · ollama run qwen3.5:35b-a3b

Recommended GPU

The cheapest GPU that runs Qwen 3.5 locally (min 1 GB VRAM) is the Intel Arc B570 (10 GB).

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Intel Arc B570 10GB
Launch MSRP: $219
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How to Run Locally

Install Ollama then run: ollama run qwen3.5:0.8b

Minimum VRAM: 1 GB. For best results use Q4_K_M quantization.

Qwen 3.5 — Frequently Asked Questions

How much VRAM does Qwen 3.5 need?

Qwen 3.5 needs about 1 GB VRAM at Q4_K_M quantization for its smallest variant. Variants: Qwen 3.5 0.8B (1 GB, Q4_K_M); Qwen 3.5 2B (2 GB, Q4_K_M); Qwen 3.5 4B (3 GB, Q4_K_M); Qwen 3.5 9B (6 GB, Q4_K_M). On Apple Silicon, unified memory counts toward this requirement.

Can I run Qwen 3.5 on an RTX 4090 (24 GB)?

Yes — Qwen 3.5 runs on an RTX 4090 (24 GB) and other 24 GB cards such as the RTX 3090. Smaller variants also fit comfortably on 8–16 GB GPUs at Q4_K_M.

What quantization should I use for Qwen 3.5?

Q4_K_M is the best balance of quality and VRAM for Qwen 3.5 in most cases. Choose Q8_0 for near-lossless quality if you have spare VRAM, or smaller quants (Q3/Q2) only when memory is tight.

How do I run Qwen 3.5 with Ollama?

Install Ollama, then run: ollama run qwen3.5:0.8b. This downloads Qwen 3.5 and starts a local, OpenAI-compatible endpoint — no internet connection is needed after the initial download.

Can I Run Qwen 3.5 on My GPU?