Model comparison
Qwen Plus vs Qwen3.6 Plus
Qwen3.6 Plus is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.5 to 37.1 on the Noometry Index. Qwen Plus costs 1.9× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.6 Plus's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 18 shared benchmarks.
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. Qwen Plus scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3.6 Plus in 8 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen3.6 Plus leads 56.1 to 27.4.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 17.8% for Qwen Plus and 93.3% for Qwen3.6 Plus.
- Qwen Plus is cheaper at $0.40 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $0.50 / $3 for Qwen3.6 Plus.
Side by side
| Qwen Plus | Qwen3.6 Plus | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 37.1 | 47.5 |
| Released | 2024-01-25 | 2026-03-31 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Context window | 1M | 1M |
| Max output | 33K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.40 | $0.50 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $1.20 | $3 |
| Results tracked | 20 | 37 |
Sponsored placements are available on pages like this one. Advertise on Noometry
Category by category
Coding Qwen3.6 Plus leads
Qwen Plus: 38.9 (#167), Qwen3.6 Plus: 40.8 (#130)
| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1328 | 1467 |
| SWE-bench Verified | — | 57.9% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1461 |
| SciCode | — | 40.7% |
| ALE-Bench | — | 670.15 |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Qwen Plus: —, Qwen3.6 Plus: —
| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 5,115 |
Reasoning Too close to call
Qwen Plus: 28.4 (#107), Qwen3.6 Plus: 29.3 (#93)
| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1317 | 1449 |
| DTBench | 81.1% | 81.9% |
| LMCA | 24% | 33.1% |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 63.3% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 60.3% |
| CritPt | — | 2.9% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 17% |
| Thematic Generalization | — | 59.5% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 12% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 147.65 |
Math Qwen3.6 Plus leads
Qwen Plus: 23.3 (#271), Qwen3.6 Plus: 51.8 (#54)
| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 17.8% | 93.3% |
| LMArena Math | 1326 | 1450 |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 1.7% | 26.2% |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 38.2% |
| MATH Level 5 | 65.3% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | — | 8.3% |
Knowledge Qwen3.6 Plus leads
Qwen Plus: 27.4 (#251), Qwen3.6 Plus: 56.1 (#45)
| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 48.1% | 88.4% |
| LMArena Expert | 1328 | 1454 |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 44.1% |
Multilingual Qwen3.6 Plus leads
Qwen Plus: 45.1 (#175), Qwen3.6 Plus: 53.3 (#70)
| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1310 | 1424 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1347 | 1477 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1251 | 1389 |
| LMArena Russian | 1323 | 1434 |
| LMArena French | — | 1455 |
| LMArena German | — | 1452 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1379 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1432 |
Instruction Following Qwen3.6 Plus leads
Qwen Plus: 68.8 (#181), Qwen3.6 Plus: 75.0 (#74)
| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1303 | 1425 |
Long Context Qwen3.6 Plus leads
Qwen Plus: 40.3 (#158), Qwen3.6 Plus: 45.2 (#49)
| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1324 | 1439 |
| CL-bench | — | 20.3% |
Writing & Preference Qwen3.6 Plus leads
Qwen Plus: 52.2 (#176), Qwen3.6 Plus: 62.2 (#82)
| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1326 | 1437 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1293 | 1404 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1336 | 1438 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Qwen Plus better than Qwen3.6 Plus?
Qwen3.6 Plus is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.5 to 37.1 on the Noometry Index. Qwen Plus costs 1.9× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.6 Plus's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Qwen Plus or Qwen3.6 Plus?
Qwen Plus is cheaper. It lists at $0.40 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 Plus lists at $0.50 and $3.
Is Qwen Plus or Qwen3.6 Plus better for coding?
Qwen3.6 Plus scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.8 versus 38.9 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Both accept 1M tokens.
How many benchmarks do Qwen Plus and Qwen3.6 Plus share?
18 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen Plus has 20 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.6 Plus has 37.