Model comparison
Qwen Plus vs Qwen3.6 27B
Qwen3.6 27B is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.2 to 37.1 on the Noometry Index. Qwen Plus costs 2.3× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.6 27B's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 4 shared benchmarks.
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 4 benchmarks with published results for both. Qwen Plus scores higher in 2 categories and Qwen3.6 27B in 3 categories; 4 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Qwen3.6 27B leads 48.5 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 27B.
- Qwen Plus is cheaper at $0.40 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $0.60 / $3.60 for Qwen3.6 27B.
- Qwen Plus accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 262K.
- Qwen3.6 27B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Qwen Plus | Qwen3.6 27B | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 37.1 | 42.2 |
| Released | 2024-01-25 | 2026-04-22 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |
| Context window | 1M | 262K |
| Max output | 33K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.40 | $0.60 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $1.20 | $3.60 |
| Results tracked | 20 | 11 |
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Category by category
Coding Too close to call
Qwen Plus: 38.9 (#167), Qwen3.6 27B: 39.1 (#163)
| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Qwen3.6 27B |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | — | 37.3% |
| LMArena Coding | 1328 | — |
Reasoning Qwen Plus leads
Qwen Plus: 28.4 (#107), Qwen3.6 27B: 25.0 (#153)
| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Qwen3.6 27B |
|---|---|---|
| DTBench | 81.1% | 78.1% |
| LMCA | 24% | 34.5% |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 63.3% | — |
| CritPt | — | 0.9% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 22% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1317 | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 7% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 146.5 |
Math Qwen3.6 27B leads
Qwen Plus: 23.3 (#271), Qwen3.6 27B: 48.5 (#62)
| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Qwen3.6 27B |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 17.8% | 91.1% |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 35.1% |
| LMArena Math | 1326 | — |
| MATH Level 5 | 65.3% | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 1.7% | — |
Knowledge Qwen3.6 27B leads
Qwen Plus: 27.4 (#251), Qwen3.6 27B: 52.4 (#63)
| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Qwen3.6 27B |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 48.1% | 85.9% |
| LMArena Expert | 1328 | — |
Multilingual Not comparable
Qwen Plus: 45.1 (#175), Qwen3.6 27B: —
| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Qwen3.6 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1310 | — |
| LMArena Chinese | 1347 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1251 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1323 | — |
Instruction Following Not comparable
Qwen Plus: 68.8 (#181), Qwen3.6 27B: —
| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Qwen3.6 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1303 | — |
Long Context Not comparable
Qwen Plus: 40.3 (#158), Qwen3.6 27B: —
| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Qwen3.6 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1324 | — |
Writing & Preference Qwen Plus leads
Qwen Plus: 52.2 (#176), Qwen3.6 27B: 50.3 (#181)
| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Qwen3.6 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1326 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1293 | — |
| EQ-Bench 4 | — | 1026 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1336 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Qwen Plus better than Qwen3.6 27B?
Qwen3.6 27B is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.2 to 37.1 on the Noometry Index. Qwen Plus costs 2.3× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.6 27B's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Qwen Plus or Qwen3.6 27B?
Qwen Plus is cheaper. It lists at $0.40 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 27B lists at $0.60 and $3.60.
Is Qwen Plus or Qwen3.6 27B better for coding?
They score almost the same on coding (38.9 vs 39.1); test both on your own repository before choosing.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen Plus does, with 1M tokens against 262K.
How many benchmarks do Qwen Plus and Qwen3.6 27B share?
4 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen Plus has 20 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.6 27B has 11.