Model comparison
Qwen3.6 Max Preview vs Qwen3.6 Plus
Qwen3.6 Max Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 51.5 to 47.5 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.6 Plus costs 2.6× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.6 Max Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 28 shared benchmarks.
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 28 benchmarks with published results for both. Qwen3.6 Max Preview scores higher in 7 categories and Qwen3.6 Plus in 1 category; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads 41.7 to 29.3.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is SWE-bench Verified: 76.7% for Qwen3.6 Max Preview and 57.9% for Qwen3.6 Plus.
- Qwen3.6 Plus is cheaper at $0.50 / $3 per million input/output tokens, against $1.30 / $7.80 for Qwen3.6 Max Preview.
- Qwen3.6 Plus accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 262K.
Side by side
| Qwen3.6 Max Preview | Qwen3.6 Plus | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 51.5 | 47.5 |
| Released | 2026-04-20 | 2026-03-31 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Context window | 262K | 1M |
| Max output | 66K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $1.30 | $0.50 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $7.80 | $3 |
| Results tracked | 29 | 37 |
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Category by category
Coding Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 48.7 (#54), Qwen3.6 Plus: 40.8 (#130)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Max Preview | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | 76.7% | 57.9% |
| LMArena WebDev | 1482 | 1461 |
| LMArena Coding | 1471 | 1467 |
| SciCode | — | 40.7% |
| ALE-Bench | — | 670.15 |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Qwen3.6 Max Preview: —, Qwen3.6 Plus: —
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Max Preview | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Vending-Bench 2 | 4,254 | 5,115 |
Reasoning Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 41.7 (#53), Qwen3.6 Plus: 29.3 (#93)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Max Preview | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| NYT Connections (extended) | 74.1% | 60.3% |
| Chess Puzzles | 20% | 17% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1457 | 1449 |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 19% | 12% |
| DTBench | 87.2% | 81.9% |
| LMCA | 42.5% | 33.1% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 149.24 | 147.65 |
| SimpleBench | 63% | — |
| CritPt | — | 2.9% |
| Thematic Generalization | — | 59.5% |
Math Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 54.1 (#46), Qwen3.6 Plus: 51.8 (#54)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Max Preview | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 91.1% | 93.3% |
| LMArena Math | 1465 | 1450 |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 23.1% | 26.2% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | 4.2% | 8.3% |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 38.2% |
Knowledge Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 57.6 (#39), Qwen3.6 Plus: 56.1 (#45)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Max Preview | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 87.4% | 88.4% |
| SimpleQA Verified | 52% | 44.1% |
| LMArena Expert | 1478 | 1454 |
Multilingual Too close to call
Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 54.2 (#48), Qwen3.6 Plus: 53.3 (#70)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Max Preview | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1437 | 1424 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1487 | 1477 |
| LMArena French | 1449 | 1455 |
| LMArena Russian | 1445 | 1434 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1454 | 1432 |
| LMArena German | — | 1452 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1389 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1379 |
Instruction Following Too close to call
Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 75.7 (#55), Qwen3.6 Plus: 75.0 (#74)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Max Preview | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1438 | 1425 |
Long Context Too close to call
Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 44.6 (#61), Qwen3.6 Plus: 45.2 (#49)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Max Preview | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1457 | 1439 |
| CL-bench | — | 20.3% |
Writing & Preference Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 63.8 (#60), Qwen3.6 Plus: 62.2 (#82)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Max Preview | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1447 | 1437 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1435 | 1404 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1456 | 1438 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Qwen3.6 Max Preview better than Qwen3.6 Plus?
Qwen3.6 Max Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 51.5 to 47.5 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.6 Plus costs 2.6× 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, Qwen3.6 Max Preview or Qwen3.6 Plus?
Qwen3.6 Plus is cheaper. It lists at $0.50 per million input tokens and $3 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 Max Preview lists at $1.30 and $7.80.
Is Qwen3.6 Max Preview or Qwen3.6 Plus better for coding?
Qwen3.6 Max Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 48.7 versus 40.8 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3.6 Plus does, with 1M tokens against 262K.
How many benchmarks do Qwen3.6 Max Preview and Qwen3.6 Plus share?
28 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen3.6 Max Preview has 29 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.6 Plus has 37.