Model comparison

DeepSeek-V3.1 vs Qwen3.6 Max Preview

Qwen3.6 Max Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 51.5 to 42.8 on the Noometry Index. DeepSeek-V3.1 costs 6.9× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.6 Max Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified October 10, 2026. 18 shared benchmarks.

DeepSeek-V3.1

DeepSeek

42.8

Rank #108 Confirmed

Qwen3.6 Max Preview

Alibaba (Qwen)

51.5

Rank #43 Confirmed

Summary

They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. DeepSeek-V3.1 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 38.9.
The biggest single-benchmark swing is SimpleBench: 40% for DeepSeek-V3.1 and 63% for Qwen3.6 Max Preview.
DeepSeek-V3.1 is cheaper at $0.25 / $0.95 per million input/output tokens, against $1.30 / $7.80 for Qwen3.6 Max Preview.
Qwen3.6 Max Preview accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 164K.
DeepSeek-V3.1 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

DeepSeek-V3.1 and Qwen3.6 Max Preview specifications
	DeepSeek-V3.1	Qwen3.6 Max Preview
Provider	DeepSeek	Alibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index	42.8	51.5
Released	2025-08-21	2026-04-20
Weights	Open	Proprietary
Context window	164K	262K
Max output	8K	66K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.25	$1.30
Output $ / M tokens	$0.95	$7.80
Results tracked	27	29

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Category by category

Coding Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads

DeepSeek-V3.1: 40.3 (#144), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 48.7 (#54)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.1	Qwen3.6 Max Preview
LMArena Coding	1417	1471
SWE-bench Verified	—	76.7%
LMArena WebDev	—	1482
WeirdML	38.4%	—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

DeepSeek-V3.1: —, Qwen3.6 Max Preview: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.1	Qwen3.6 Max Preview
Vending-Bench 2	—	4,254

Reasoning Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads

DeepSeek-V3.1: 27.9 (#110), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 41.7 (#53)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.1	Qwen3.6 Max Preview
SimpleBench	40%	63%
LMArena Hard Prompts	1417	1457
DTBench	82.7%	87.2%
LMCA	24.3%	42.5%
Epoch Capabilities Index	139.92	149.24
Kagi LLM Benchmark	53.2%	—
NYT Connections (extended)	—	74.1%
Chess Puzzles	—	20%
Mystery Game Puzzles	—	19%
ForecastBench	58	—

Math Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads

DeepSeek-V3.1: 38.9 (#122), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 54.1 (#46)

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.1	Qwen3.6 Max Preview
LMArena Math	1420	1465
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025	—	91.1%
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)	—	23.1%
FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1)	—	4.2%

Knowledge Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads

DeepSeek-V3.1: 43.7 (#90), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 57.6 (#39)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.1	Qwen3.6 Max Preview
LMArena Expert	1405	1478
GPQA Diamond	—	87.4%
SimpleQA Verified	—	52%
Vectara Hallucination Rate	5.5%	—

Multilingual Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads

DeepSeek-V3.1: 51.6 (#106), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 54.2 (#48)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.1	Qwen3.6 Max Preview
LMArena Non-English	1400	1437
LMArena Chinese	1469	1487
LMArena French	1447	1449
LMArena Russian	1405	1445
LMArena Spanish	1431	1454
LMArena German	1411	—
LMArena Japanese	1378	—
LMArena Korean	1337	—

Instruction Following Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads

DeepSeek-V3.1: 73.9 (#110), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 75.7 (#55)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.1	Qwen3.6 Max Preview
LMArena Instruction Following	1400	1438

Long Context Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads

DeepSeek-V3.1: 36.3 (#232), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 44.6 (#61)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.1	Qwen3.6 Max Preview
LMArena Longer Query	1422	1457
Fiction.LiveBench	52.8%	—

Writing & Preference Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads

DeepSeek-V3.1: 60.3 (#98), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 63.8 (#60)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.1	Qwen3.6 Max Preview
LMArena Text	1420	1447
LMArena Creative Writing	1401	1435
LMArena Multi-Turn	1408	1456
EQ-Bench Creative Writing	1436	—

Frequently asked questions

Is DeepSeek-V3.1 better than Qwen3.6 Max Preview?

Which is cheaper, DeepSeek-V3.1 or Qwen3.6 Max Preview?

DeepSeek-V3.1 is cheaper. It lists at $0.25 per million input tokens and $0.95 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 Max Preview lists at $1.30 and $7.80.

Is DeepSeek-V3.1 or Qwen3.6 Max Preview better for coding?

Qwen3.6 Max Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 48.7 versus 40.3 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3.6 Max Preview does, with 262K tokens against 164K.

How many benchmarks do DeepSeek-V3.1 and Qwen3.6 Max Preview share?

18 benchmarks have published results for both models. DeepSeek-V3.1 has 27 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.6 Max Preview has 29.