Model comparison
Qwen3.6 Flash vs Qwen3 Max
Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 38.4 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.6 Flash costs 5.7× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 10 shared benchmarks.
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 10 benchmarks with published results for both. Qwen3.6 Flash scores higher in 2 categories and Qwen3 Max in 1 category; 2 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Qwen3.6 Flash leads 28.4 to 22.0.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is SimpleQA Verified: 15.9% for Qwen3.6 Flash and 48.7% for Qwen3 Max.
- Qwen3.6 Flash is cheaper at $0.19 / $1.13 per million input/output tokens, against $1.20 / $6 for Qwen3 Max.
- Qwen3.6 Flash accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 262K.
Side by side
| Qwen3.6 Flash | Qwen3 Max | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 38.4 | 43.5 |
| Released | 2026-04-27 | 2025-09-23 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Context window | 1M | 262K |
| Max output | 66K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.19 | $1.20 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $1.13 | $6 |
| Results tracked | 13 | 33 |
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Category by category
Coding Not comparable
Qwen3.6 Flash: —, Qwen3 Max: 42.4 (#93)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Flash | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| ALE-Bench | 326.4 | 370.45 |
| LMArena Coding | — | 1456 |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Qwen3.6 Flash: —, Qwen3 Max: —
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Flash | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 71.56 |
Reasoning Qwen3.6 Flash leads
Qwen3.6 Flash: 28.4 (#90), Qwen3 Max: 22.0 (#186)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Flash | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Chess Puzzles | 20% | 4% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 18% | 5% |
| DTBench | 77.1% | 82.1% |
| LMCA | 31% | 28.3% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 143.26 | 142.41 |
| SimpleBench | 35.2% | — |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 72.5% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 30.1% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | — | 1448 |
Math Too close to call
Qwen3.6 Flash: 38.0 (#88), Qwen3 Max: 37.6 (#94)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Flash | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 22.5% | 18.9% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 84.4% | 73.3% |
| LMArena Math | — | 1447 |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 97.1% |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 10.3% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | 0% | — |
Knowledge Qwen3 Max leads
Qwen3.6 Flash: 42.2 (#90), Qwen3 Max: 48.1 (#72)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Flash | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 83.3% | 72.6% |
| SimpleQA Verified | 15.9% | 48.7% |
| LMArena Expert | — | 1457 |
Multilingual Not comparable
Qwen3.6 Flash: —, Qwen3 Max: 53.9 (#58)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Flash | 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 Flash: —, Qwen3 Max: 75.0 (#81)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Flash | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | — | 1420 |
Long Context Not comparable
Qwen3.6 Flash: —, Qwen3 Max: 41.6 (#129)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Flash | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Fiction.LiveBench | — | 66.7% |
| CL-bench | — | 14.5% |
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1439 |
Writing & Preference Not comparable
Qwen3.6 Flash: —, Qwen3 Max: 62.6 (#72)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Flash | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | — | 1439 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | — | 1401 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | — | 1446 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Qwen3.6 Flash better than Qwen3 Max?
Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 38.4 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.6 Flash costs 5.7× 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 Flash or Qwen3 Max?
Qwen3.6 Flash is cheaper. It lists at $0.19 per million input tokens and $1.13 per million output tokens; Qwen3 Max lists at $1.20 and $6.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3.6 Flash does, with 1M tokens against 262K.
How many benchmarks do Qwen3.6 Flash and Qwen3 Max share?
10 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen3.6 Flash has 13 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 Max has 33.