Model comparison
Granite 4.0 Micro vs Qwen3.6 Max Preview
Qwen3.6 Max Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 51.5 to 29.0 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.0 Micro costs 72× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.6 Max Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 3 shared benchmarks.
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 3 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.0 Micro scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3.6 Max Preview in 5 categories; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads 57.6 to 9.9.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 2.8% for Granite 4.0 Micro and 91.1% for Qwen3.6 Max Preview.
- Granite 4.0 Micro is cheaper at $0.017 / $0.11 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 131K.
- Granite 4.0 Micro has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Granite 4.0 Micro | Qwen3.6 Max Preview | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 29.0 | 51.5 |
| Released | 2025-10-02 | 2026-04-20 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | 131K | 262K |
| Max output | 118K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.017 | $1.30 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.11 | $7.80 |
| Results tracked | 8 | 29 |
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Category by category
Coding Not comparable
Granite 4.0 Micro: —, Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 48.7 (#54)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | — | 76.7% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1482 |
| LMArena Coding | — | 1471 |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Granite 4.0 Micro: —, Qwen3.6 Max Preview: —
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 4,254 |
Reasoning Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Granite 4.0 Micro: 19.2 (#265), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 41.7 (#53)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | 20% |
| SimpleBench | — | 63% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 74.1% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | — | 1457 |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 19% |
| DTBench | — | 87.2% |
| LMCA | — | 42.5% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 149.24 |
Math Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Granite 4.0 Micro: 12.0 (#307), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 54.1 (#46)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 2.8% | 91.1% |
| Omni-MATH | 20.9% | — |
| LMArena Math | — | 1465 |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | — | 23.1% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | — | 4.2% |
Knowledge Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Granite 4.0 Micro: 9.9 (#304), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 57.6 (#39)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 28.3% | 87.4% |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 52% |
| MMLU-Pro | 39.5% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 30.7% | — |
| LMArena Expert | — | 1478 |
Multilingual Not comparable
Granite 4.0 Micro: —, Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 54.2 (#48)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | — | 1437 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1487 |
| LMArena French | — | 1449 |
| LMArena Russian | — | 1445 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1454 |
Instruction Following Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Granite 4.0 Micro: 69.9 (#169), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 75.7 (#55)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| IFEval | 84.9% | — |
| LMArena Instruction Following | — | 1438 |
Long Context Not comparable
Granite 4.0 Micro: —, Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 44.6 (#61)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1457 |
Writing & Preference Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Granite 4.0 Micro: 46.7 (#216), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 63.8 (#60)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | — | 1447 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | — | 1435 |
| WildBench | 67% | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | — | 1456 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Granite 4.0 Micro better than Qwen3.6 Max Preview?
Qwen3.6 Max Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 51.5 to 29.0 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.0 Micro costs 72× 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, Granite 4.0 Micro or Qwen3.6 Max Preview?
Granite 4.0 Micro is cheaper. It lists at $0.017 per million input tokens and $0.11 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 Max Preview lists at $1.30 and $7.80.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3.6 Max Preview does, with 262K tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks do Granite 4.0 Micro and Qwen3.6 Max Preview share?
3 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.0 Micro has 8 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.6 Max Preview has 29.