Model comparison
Qwen Plus vs Qwen3.6 Max Preview
Qwen3.6 Max Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 51.5 to 37.1 on the Noometry Index. Qwen Plus costs 4.9× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.6 Max Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Qwen Plus scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3.6 Max Preview in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads 54.1 to 23.3.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 17.8% for Qwen Plus and 91.1% for Qwen3.6 Max Preview.
- Qwen Plus is cheaper at $0.40 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $1.30 / $7.80 for Qwen3.6 Max Preview.
- Qwen Plus accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 262K.
Side by side
| Qwen Plus | Qwen3.6 Max Preview | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 37.1 | 51.5 |
| Released | 2024-01-25 | 2026-04-20 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Context window | 1M | 262K |
| Max output | 33K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.40 | $1.30 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $1.20 | $7.80 |
| Results tracked | 20 | 29 |
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Category by category
Coding Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Qwen Plus: 38.9 (#167), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 48.7 (#54)
| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1328 | 1471 |
| SWE-bench Verified | — | 76.7% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1482 |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Qwen Plus: —, Qwen3.6 Max Preview: —
| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 4,254 |
Reasoning Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Qwen Plus: 28.4 (#107), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 41.7 (#53)
| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1317 | 1457 |
| DTBench | 81.1% | 87.2% |
| LMCA | 24% | 42.5% |
| SimpleBench | — | 63% |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 63.3% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 74.1% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 20% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 19% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 149.24 |
Math Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Qwen Plus: 23.3 (#271), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 54.1 (#46)
| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 17.8% | 91.1% |
| LMArena Math | 1326 | 1465 |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 1.7% | 23.1% |
| MATH Level 5 | 65.3% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | — | 4.2% |
Knowledge Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Qwen Plus: 27.4 (#251), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 57.6 (#39)
| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 48.1% | 87.4% |
| LMArena Expert | 1328 | 1478 |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 52% |
Multilingual Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Qwen Plus: 45.1 (#175), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 54.2 (#48)
| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1310 | 1437 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1347 | 1487 |
| LMArena Russian | 1323 | 1445 |
| LMArena French | — | 1449 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1251 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1454 |
Instruction Following Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Qwen Plus: 68.8 (#181), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 75.7 (#55)
| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1303 | 1438 |
Long Context Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Qwen Plus: 40.3 (#158), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 44.6 (#61)
| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1324 | 1457 |
Writing & Preference Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Qwen Plus: 52.2 (#176), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 63.8 (#60)
| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1326 | 1447 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1293 | 1435 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1336 | 1456 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Qwen Plus better than Qwen3.6 Max Preview?
Qwen3.6 Max Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 51.5 to 37.1 on the Noometry Index. Qwen Plus costs 4.9× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.6 Max Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Qwen Plus or Qwen3.6 Max Preview?
Qwen Plus is cheaper. It lists at $0.40 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 Max Preview lists at $1.30 and $7.80.
Is Qwen Plus or Qwen3.6 Max Preview better for coding?
Qwen3.6 Max Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 48.7 versus 38.9 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen Plus does, with 1M tokens against 262K.
How many benchmarks do Qwen Plus and Qwen3.6 Max Preview share?
17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen Plus has 20 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.6 Max Preview has 29.