Model comparison
Qwen Max vs Qwen3.6 Max Preview
Qwen3.6 Max Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 51.1 to 34.4 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Qwen Max 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 52.2 to 21.0.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 16.1% for Qwen Max and 91.1% for Qwen3.6 Max Preview.
- Both cost about the same: $1.60 input and $6.40 output per million tokens.
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 33K.
Side by side
| Qwen Max | Qwen3.6 Max Preview | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 34.4 | 51.1 |
| Released | 2024-04-03 | 2026-04-20 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Context window | 33K | 262K |
| Max output | 8K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $1.60 | $1.30 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $6.40 | $7.80 |
| Results tracked | 23 | 29 |
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Category by category
Coding Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Qwen Max: 30.3 (#288), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 48.6 (#50)
| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1288 | 1472 |
| SWE-bench Verified | — | 76.7% |
| Aider Polyglot | 21.8% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1482 |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Qwen Max: —, Qwen3.6 Max Preview: —
| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 4,254 |
Reasoning Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Qwen Max: 24.1 (#154), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 40.8 (#47)
| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1270 | 1457 |
| SimpleBench | — | 63% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 74.1% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 20% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 19% |
| DTBench | — | 87.2% |
| LMCA | — | 42.5% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 149.27 |
Math Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Qwen Max: 21.0 (#272), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 52.2 (#40)
| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 16.1% | 91.1% |
| LMArena Math | 1275 | 1465 |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 1% | 23.1% |
| MATH Level 5 | 67.2% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | — | 4.2% |
Knowledge Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Qwen Max: 30.3 (#222), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 57.6 (#35)
| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 56.1% | 87.4% |
| LMArena Expert | 1248 | 1476 |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 52% |
Multilingual Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Qwen Max: 42.0 (#197), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 54.3 (#46)
| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1263 | 1436 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1254 | 1487 |
| LMArena French | 1329 | 1449 |
| LMArena Russian | 1274 | 1444 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1290 | 1452 |
| LMArena German | 1254 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1205 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1141 | — |
Instruction Following Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Qwen Max: 66.7 (#203), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 75.8 (#51)
| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1262 | 1437 |
Long Context Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Qwen Max: 39.4 (#175), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 44.6 (#59)
| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1289 | 1457 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | 66.7% | — |
Writing & Preference Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Qwen Max: 48.0 (#200), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 64.0 (#58)
| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1282 | 1447 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1248 | 1435 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1277 | 1456 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Qwen Max better than Qwen3.6 Max Preview?
Qwen3.6 Max Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 51.1 to 34.4 on the Noometry Index.
Which is cheaper, Qwen Max or Qwen3.6 Max Preview?
Qwen Max is cheaper. It lists at $1.60 per million input tokens and $6.40 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 Max Preview lists at $1.30 and $7.80.
Is Qwen Max or Qwen3.6 Max Preview better for coding?
Qwen3.6 Max Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 48.6 versus 30.3 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3.6 Max Preview does, with 262K tokens against 33K.
How many benchmarks do Qwen Max and Qwen3.6 Max Preview share?
17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen Max has 23 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.6 Max Preview has 29.