Model comparison

o3-mini vs Qwen3.6 27B

Qwen3.6 27B is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.2 to 36.7 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 10 shared benchmarks.

o3-mini OpenAI

36.7

Rank #212 Confirmed

Qwen3.6 27B Alibaba (Qwen)

42.2

Rank #117 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 10 benchmarks with published results for both. o3-mini scores higher in 1 category and Qwen3.6 27B in 4 categories; 4 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where Qwen3.6 27B leads 48.5 to 28.1.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3): 18.6% for o3-mini and 35.1% for Qwen3.6 27B.
  • Qwen3.6 27B is cheaper at $0.60 / $3.60 per million input/output tokens, against $1.10 / $4.40 for o3-mini.
  • Qwen3.6 27B accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 200K.
  • Qwen3.6 27B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

o3-mini and Qwen3.6 27B specifications
o3-miniQwen3.6 27B
ProviderOpenAIAlibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index36.742.2
Released2024-12-202026-04-22
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window200K262K
Max output100K66K
Input $ / M tokens$1.10$0.60
Output $ / M tokens$4.40$3.60
Results tracked5111

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Category by category

Coding o3-mini leads

o3-mini: 40.8 (#132), Qwen3.6 27B: 39.1 (#163)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmarko3-miniQwen3.6 27B
SciCode39.8%37.3%
Aider Polyglot60.4%—
GSO1.3%—
WeirdML43.7%—
LiveBench Coding82.7%—
LMArena Coding1378—
CadEval54%—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

o3-mini: 29.6 (#84), Qwen3.6 27B: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmarko3-miniQwen3.6 27B
Cybench22.5%—

Reasoning Qwen3.6 27B leads

o3-mini: 16.3 (#305), Qwen3.6 27B: 25.0 (#153)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmarko3-miniQwen3.6 27B
CritPt0.3%0.9%
Chess Puzzles17%22%
Mystery Game Puzzles7%7%
DTBench68.8%78.1%
LMCA19%34.5%
Epoch Capabilities Index140.34146.5
ARC-AGI-23%—
SimpleBench22.8%—
ARC-AGI-134.5%—
LiveBench Reasoning89.6%—
LMArena Hard Prompts1366—
LiveBench Data Analysis70.6%—
ForecastBench59.6—
LiveBench75.9%—

Math Qwen3.6 27B leads

o3-mini: 28.1 (#244), Qwen3.6 27B: 48.5 (#62)

Math benchmarks
Benchmarko3-miniQwen3.6 27B
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)18.6%35.1%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202576.9%91.1%
FrontierMath Tier 40%—
LiveBench Math77.3%—
LMArena Math1396—
MATH Level 596.5%—
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)12.4%—
FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1)4.2%—

Knowledge Qwen3.6 27B leads

o3-mini: 38.3 (#146), Qwen3.6 27B: 52.4 (#63)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmarko3-miniQwen3.6 27B
GPQA Diamond77%85.9%
SimpleQA Verified15.3%—
Confabulations17.9%—
LMArena Expert1364—

Multilingual Not comparable

o3-mini: 45.7 (#164), Qwen3.6 27B: —

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmarko3-miniQwen3.6 27B
LMArena Non-English1319—
LMArena Chinese1379—
LMArena French1334—
LMArena German1303—
LMArena Japanese1286—
LMArena Korean1314—
LMArena Russian1304—
LMArena Spanish1321—

Instruction Following Not comparable

o3-mini: 75.1 (#72), Qwen3.6 27B: —

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmarko3-miniQwen3.6 27B
LiveBench Instruction Following84.4%—
LMArena Instruction Following1337—

Long Context Not comparable

o3-mini: 33.8 (#256), Qwen3.6 27B: —

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmarko3-miniQwen3.6 27B
Fiction.LiveBench50%—
LMArena Longer Query1343—

Writing & Preference Too close to call

o3-mini: 50.3 (#182), Qwen3.6 27B: 50.3 (#181)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmarko3-miniQwen3.6 27B
LMArena Text1337—
LMArena Creative Writing1286—
Short-Story Creative Writing61.7%—
EQ-Bench 4—1026
LMArena Multi-Turn1320—
LiveBench Language50.7%—

Frequently asked questions

Is o3-mini better than Qwen3.6 27B?

Qwen3.6 27B is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.2 to 36.7 on the Noometry Index.

Which is cheaper, o3-mini or Qwen3.6 27B?

Qwen3.6 27B is cheaper. It lists at $0.60 per million input tokens and $3.60 per million output tokens; o3-mini lists at $1.10 and $4.40.

Is o3-mini or Qwen3.6 27B better for coding?

o3-mini scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.8 versus 39.1 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3.6 27B does, with 262K tokens against 200K.

How many benchmarks do o3-mini and Qwen3.6 27B share?

10 benchmarks have published results for both models. o3-mini has 51 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.6 27B has 11.

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