Model comparison
Qwen3.6 27B vs Step 3.5 Flash
Qwen3.6 27B and Step 3.5 Flash score almost the same on the Noometry Index (42.2 vs 42.3), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.
Last verified . 0 shared benchmarks.
Alibaba (Qwen)
StepFunSummary
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen3.6 27B leads 52.4 to 39.6.
- Step 3.5 Flash is cheaper at $0.10 / $0.30 per million input/output tokens, against $0.60 / $3.60 for Qwen3.6 27B.
- Qwen3.6 27B accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 256K.
Side by side
| Qwen3.6 27B | Step 3.5 Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 42.2 | 42.3 |
| Released | 2026-04-22 | 2026-01-29 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 262K | 256K |
| Max output | 66K | 256K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.60 | $0.10 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $3.60 | $0.30 |
| Results tracked | 11 | 19 |
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Category by category
Coding Step 3.5 Flash leads
Qwen3.6 27B: 39.1 (#163), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.4 (#105)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 37.3% | — |
| LMArena Coding | — | 1436 |
Reasoning Qwen3.6 27B leads
Qwen3.6 27B: 25.0 (#153), Step 3.5 Flash: 22.2 (#202)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 28.4% |
| CritPt | 0.9% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 22% | — |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | — | 1411 |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 7% | — |
| DTBench | 78.1% | — |
| LMCA | 34.5% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 146.5 | — |
Math Qwen3.6 27B leads
Qwen3.6 27B: 48.5 (#62), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.6 (#84)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 35.1% | — |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | — | 66.8% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 91.1% | — |
| LMArena Math | — | 1408 |
Knowledge Qwen3.6 27B leads
Qwen3.6 27B: 52.4 (#63), Step 3.5 Flash: 39.6 (#132)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 85.9% | — |
| LMArena Expert | — | 1421 |
Multilingual Not comparable
Qwen3.6 27B: —, Step 3.5 Flash: 50.5 (#119)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | — | 1385 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1447 |
| LMArena French | — | 1421 |
| LMArena German | — | 1405 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1354 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1352 |
| LMArena Russian | — | 1385 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1419 |
Instruction Following Not comparable
Qwen3.6 27B: —, Step 3.5 Flash: 73.1 (#124)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | — | 1385 |
Long Context Not comparable
Qwen3.6 27B: —, Step 3.5 Flash: 42.8 (#117)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1402 |
Writing & Preference Step 3.5 Flash leads
Qwen3.6 27B: 50.3 (#181), Step 3.5 Flash: 58.8 (#113)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | — | 1403 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | — | 1357 |
| EQ-Bench 4 | 1026 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | — | 1405 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Qwen3.6 27B better than Step 3.5 Flash?
Qwen3.6 27B and Step 3.5 Flash score almost the same on the Noometry Index (42.2 vs 42.3), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6 27B or Step 3.5 Flash?
Step 3.5 Flash is cheaper. It lists at $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.30 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 27B lists at $0.60 and $3.60.
Is Qwen3.6 27B or Step 3.5 Flash better for coding?
Step 3.5 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 39.1 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3.6 27B does, with 262K tokens against 256K.
How many benchmarks do Qwen3.6 27B and Step 3.5 Flash share?
0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen3.6 27B has 11 scored results on Noometry and Step 3.5 Flash has 19.