Which is cheaper, Laguna S 2.1 or Qwen3.5-9B?

Qwen3.5-9B, at $0.27 per million tokens against $0.45 for Laguna S 2.1, three parts input to one part output, read on 16 Sept 2026.

Where is each one cheapest?

Laguna S 2.1: nobody goes below the maker's own price with a reason we can point at, so $0.45 is the number to beat. Qwen3.5-9B: $0.27 at Crof.

Can I buy both from one provider?

Yes. 5 providers sell both: NanoGPT, Nous Portal, OpenRouter, Kilo Gateway, Pioneer. The cheapest of them for the two together is NanoGPT.

Which holds more context?

Laguna S 2.1, at 1M tokens against 262k.

Laguna S 2.1 vs Qwen3.5-9B.

model vs model · prices as of 16 Sept 2026

Laguna S 2.1 takes 3 of 5 rounds against Qwen3.5-9B. Qwen3.5-9B counters on price: $0.27 per million tokens against $0.45, for 262k context instead of 1M.

Poolsidewins 3 rounds

Laguna S 2.1

$0.45/M tokens

Poolside list price, nothing below it is accounted for · $0.0648 per 1,000 pages

1M context · tool calling · open weights

Alibaba Cloud

Qwen3.5-9B

$0.27/M tokens

cheapest we can explain, at Crof · $0.033 per 1,000 pages

262k context · tool calling · reads images · open weights

Crof ↗

List price in (lower wins)

$0.09/M

$0.10/M

List price out (lower wins)

$0.18/M

$0.15/M

Cheapest we can explain (lower wins)

none below list

$0.27/M at Crof

Standard price (lower wins)

$0.45/M

Cost per 1,000 pages (lower wins)

$0.0648

$0.033

Context

1M tokens

262k tokens

Open weights

yes

Tool calling

yes

Structured output

yes

Reads images

yes

Reasoning

yes

Released

21 Jul 2026

10 Mar 2026

Providers selling it

Price we measure against

the maker's own

OpenRouter

Trains on your prompts (no is better)

no provider to check

not stated

Providers selling both · 5

NanoGPT$0.50 / $0.30
Nous Portal$0.45 / $0.37
OpenRouter$0.45 / $0.45
Kilo Gateway$0.50 / $0.45
Pioneer$0.50 / $1.20

Laguna S 2.1 then Qwen3.5-9B, per million tokens

Go further

open in the compare tool →every price for Laguna S 2.1 every price for Qwen3.5-9B

Add a third or fourth model, or switch the weighting, in the tool.

What moved in the last seven days

Laguna S 2.1Nous Portal$0.07 / $0.14 $0.09 / $0.1825% dearer · 16 Sept 2026
Qwen3.5-9BNous Portal$0.06 / $0.10 $0.08 / $0.1325% dearer · 16 Sept 2026
Qwen3.5-9BTrustedRouter$0.11 / $0.16 $0.09 / $0.1613% cheaper · 16 Sept 2026

Frequently asked

Which is cheaper, Laguna S 2.1 or Qwen3.5-9B?: Qwen3.5-9B, at $0.27 per million tokens against $0.45 for Laguna S 2.1, three parts input to one part output, read on 16 Sept 2026.
Where is each one cheapest?: Laguna S 2.1: nobody goes below the maker's own price with a reason we can point at, so $0.45 is the number to beat. Qwen3.5-9B: $0.27 at Crof.
Can I buy both from one provider?: Yes. 5 providers sell both: NanoGPT, Nous Portal, OpenRouter, Kilo Gateway, Pioneer. The cheapest of them for the two together is NanoGPT.
Which holds more context?: Laguna S 2.1, at 1M tokens against 262k.

Prices exclude tax and are per million tokens, read 16 Sept 2026 from each provider's own catalog. The standard price blends three parts input to one part output; a page is 600 tokens in and 60 out. Bars are scaled to the larger value in each row.