Model comparison
Qwen3.6 27B vs Qwen3 Max
Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 41.9 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.6 27B costs 1.8× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 8 shared benchmarks.
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 8 benchmarks with published results for both. Qwen3.6 27B scores higher in 3 categories and Qwen3 Max in 2 categories; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Qwen3 Max leads 62.6 to 50.3.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is Chess Puzzles: 22% for Qwen3.6 27B and 4% for Qwen3 Max.
- Qwen3.6 27B is cheaper at $0.60 / $3.60 per million input/output tokens, against $1.20 / $6 for Qwen3 Max.
- Qwen3.6 27B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Qwen3.6 27B | Qwen3 Max | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 41.9 | 43.5 |
| Released | 2026-04-22 | 2025-09-23 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | 262K | 262K |
| Max output | 66K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.60 | $1.20 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $3.60 | $6 |
| Results tracked | 11 | 33 |
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Category by category
Coding Qwen3 Max leads
Qwen3.6 27B: 38.5 (#162), Qwen3 Max: 42.4 (#93)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 37.3% | — |
| LMArena Coding | — | 1456 |
| ALE-Bench | — | 370.45 |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Qwen3.6 27B: —, Qwen3 Max: —
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 71.56 |
Reasoning Qwen3.6 27B leads
Qwen3.6 27B: 24.4 (#148), Qwen3 Max: 22.0 (#186)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Chess Puzzles | 22% | 4% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 7% | 5% |
| DTBench | 78.1% | 82.1% |
| LMCA | 34.5% | 28.3% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 146.47 | 142.41 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 72.5% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 30.1% |
| CritPt | 0.9% | — |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | — | 1448 |
Math Qwen3.6 27B leads
Qwen3.6 27B: 47.5 (#56), Qwen3 Max: 37.6 (#94)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 35.1% | 18.9% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 91.1% | 73.3% |
| LMArena Math | — | 1447 |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 97.1% |
Knowledge Qwen3.6 27B leads
Qwen3.6 27B: 52.4 (#58), Qwen3 Max: 48.1 (#72)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 85.9% | 72.6% |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 48.7% |
| LMArena Expert | — | 1457 |
Multilingual Not comparable
Qwen3.6 27B: —, Qwen3 Max: 53.9 (#58)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | — | 1429 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1479 |
| LMArena French | — | 1450 |
| LMArena German | — | 1463 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1399 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1397 |
| LMArena Russian | — | 1428 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1463 |
Instruction Following Not comparable
Qwen3.6 27B: —, Qwen3 Max: 75.0 (#81)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | — | 1420 |
Long Context Not comparable
Qwen3.6 27B: —, Qwen3 Max: 41.6 (#129)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Fiction.LiveBench | — | 66.7% |
| CL-bench | — | 14.5% |
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1439 |
Writing & Preference Qwen3 Max leads
Qwen3.6 27B: 50.3 (#180), Qwen3 Max: 62.6 (#72)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | — | 1439 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | — | 1401 |
| EQ-Bench 4 | 1026 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | — | 1446 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Qwen3.6 27B better than Qwen3 Max?
Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 41.9 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.6 27B costs 1.8× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6 27B or Qwen3 Max?
Qwen3.6 27B is cheaper. It lists at $0.60 per million input tokens and $3.60 per million output tokens; Qwen3 Max lists at $1.20 and $6.
Is Qwen3.6 27B or Qwen3 Max better for coding?
Qwen3 Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 38.5 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Both accept 262K tokens.
How many benchmarks do Qwen3.6 27B and Qwen3 Max share?
8 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen3.6 27B has 11 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 Max has 33.