Qwen 3.5 Omni Environmental Impact
Native omni-modal — text, image, audio, video in one model
- Architecture
- Omni-modal Transformer (text + image + audio + video)
- Context
- 256,000 tokens
- Provider
- Alibaba
Energy per query
1.5 Wh
5x more than a Google search (0.3 Wh)
CO2 per query
0.83 g
China grid (550 gCO₂/kWh)
Water per query
6 mL
~182 queries to fill 1 litre
Processing location
Alibaba Cloud / self-hosted
Provider
Alibaba
Category
Multimodal
Grid carbon intensity
550 g CO2/kWh (30% renewable)
How does Qwen 3.5 Omni compare?
Detailed Breakdown
Energy Consumption
Qwen 3.5 Omni is a natively omni-modal model handling text, images, audio, and video in a single architecture. At ~1.5 Wh per multimodal query, it comes in Plus, Flash, and Light variants. The Flash variant is significantly more efficient. Apache 2.0 licensed.
Power Source & Carbon
Open-source. Available via Alibaba Cloud or self-hosted globally.
About Qwen 3.5 Omni
Qwen 3.5 Omni is a multimodal model from Alibaba, released in March 30, 2026. Native omni-modal — text, image, audio, video in one model. Each query uses 1.5 Wh of energy and produces 0.83 g of CO₂. That's 5x the energy of a Google search — reflecting the computational demands of multimodal.
These figures are estimates derived from hardware specifications and API benchmarks — Alibaba has not published official energy data for Qwen 3.5 Omni. Actual consumption may vary significantly depending on batching, quantisation, and infrastructure optimisations that we cannot observe from outside.
Qwen 3.5 Omni in Context
The efficiency alternative
Phi-4 Multimodal performs the same type of task using just 0.12 Wh per query — 92% less energy than Qwen 3.5 Omni. For a user sending 25 queries per day, switching would save 12.6 kWh per year.
Your yearly Qwen 3.5 Omni footprint
At 25 queries per day, your annual Qwen 3.5 Omni usage consumes 13.7 kWh — roughly what a fridge uses in a month. That produces 7.6 kg of CO₂.
Key Insights
Alibaba Qwen Family
How energy efficiency has evolved across versions.
What does your Qwen 3.5 Omni usage cost the planet?
Use our calculator to estimate your personal environmental footprint based on how often you use Qwen 3.5 Omni.
Calculate My ComputeFrequently Asked Questions
How much energy does Qwen 3.5 Omni use per query?
Each Qwen 3.5 Omni query consumes approximately 1.5 Wh of energy. This is 5x more than a traditional Google search (~0.3 Wh).
What is Qwen 3.5 Omni's carbon footprint?
Based on the carbon intensity of Alibaba Cloud / self-hosted, each query produces approximately 0.83 g of CO2. The grid in this region has a carbon intensity of 550 g CO2/kWh with 30% renewable energy.
How much water does Qwen 3.5 Omni use?
Each query consumes approximately 6 mL of water, primarily used for cooling the data centers that process the request.
How does Qwen 3.5 Omni compare to a Google search?
A Qwen 3.5 Omni query uses 5x more than a Google search in terms of energy. A Google search uses approximately 0.3 Wh, while Qwen 3.5 Omni uses 1.5 Wh.
Technical Details
Architecture
Omni-modal Transformer (text + image + audio + video)
Context window
256,000 tokens
Release date
2026-03-30
Open source
Yes
Training data cutoff
2026-02