Model comparison
Qwen3.5 Plus vs Qwen3.6 Max Preview
Qwen3.6 Max Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 51.5 to 42.9 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.5 Plus costs 3.2× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.6 Max Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 11 shared benchmarks.
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Qwen3.5 Plus scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3.6 Max Preview in 4 categories; 4 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads 57.6 to 46.0.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is SimpleQA Verified: 25.4% for Qwen3.5 Plus and 52% for Qwen3.6 Max Preview.
- Qwen3.5 Plus is cheaper at $0.40 / $2.40 per million input/output tokens, against $1.30 / $7.80 for Qwen3.6 Max Preview.
- Qwen3.5 Plus accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 262K.
Side by side
| Qwen3.5 Plus | Qwen3.6 Max Preview | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 42.9 | 51.5 |
| Released | 2026-02-16 | 2026-04-20 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Context window | 1M | 262K |
| Max output | 66K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.40 | $1.30 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $2.40 | $7.80 |
| Results tracked | 15 | 29 |
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Category by category
Coding Not comparable
Qwen3.5 Plus: —, Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 48.7 (#54)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5 Plus | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | — | 76.7% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1482 |
| LMArena Coding | — | 1471 |
| ALE-Bench | 621.92 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Qwen3.5 Plus: —, Qwen3.6 Max Preview: —
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5 Plus | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Vending-Bench 2 | 0.54 | 4,254 |
Reasoning Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Qwen3.5 Plus: 32.8 (#74), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 41.7 (#53)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5 Plus | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Chess Puzzles | 22% | 20% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 17% | 19% |
| DTBench | 80.5% | 87.2% |
| LMCA | 36.4% | 42.5% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 146.78 | 149.24 |
| SimpleBench | — | 63% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 74.1% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | — | 1457 |
Math Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Qwen3.5 Plus: 49.6 (#61), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 54.1 (#46)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5 Plus | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 86.7% | 91.1% |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 21% | 23.1% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | 2.1% | 4.2% |
| LMArena Math | — | 1465 |
Knowledge Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Qwen3.5 Plus: 46.0 (#83), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 57.6 (#39)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5 Plus | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 84.8% | 87.4% |
| SimpleQA Verified | 25.4% | 52% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 10.7% | — |
| LMArena Expert | — | 1478 |
Multilingual Not comparable
Qwen3.5 Plus: —, Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 54.2 (#48)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5 Plus | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | — | 1437 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1487 |
| LMArena French | — | 1449 |
| LMArena Russian | — | 1445 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1454 |
Instruction Following Not comparable
Qwen3.5 Plus: —, Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 75.7 (#55)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5 Plus | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | — | 1438 |
Long Context Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Qwen3.5 Plus: 43.0 (#113), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 44.6 (#61)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5 Plus | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| CL-bench | 19.8% | — |
| CL-bench Life | 12.4% | — |
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1457 |
Writing & Preference Not comparable
Qwen3.5 Plus: —, Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 63.8 (#60)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5 Plus | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | — | 1447 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | — | 1435 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | — | 1456 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Qwen3.5 Plus better than Qwen3.6 Max Preview?
Qwen3.6 Max Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 51.5 to 42.9 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.5 Plus costs 3.2× 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, Qwen3.5 Plus or Qwen3.6 Max Preview?
Qwen3.5 Plus is cheaper. It lists at $0.40 per million input tokens and $2.40 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 Max Preview lists at $1.30 and $7.80.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3.5 Plus does, with 1M tokens against 262K.
How many benchmarks do Qwen3.5 Plus and Qwen3.6 Max Preview share?
11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen3.5 Plus has 15 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.6 Max Preview has 29.