Model comparison
Qwen3.6 Max Preview vs Step 3
Qwen3.6 Max Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 51.5 to 40.5 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 13 shared benchmarks.
Alibaba (Qwen)
StepFunSummary
- They share 13 benchmarks with published results for both. Qwen3.6 Max Preview scores higher in 8 categories and Step 3 in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads 57.6 to 36.8.
- Step 3 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Qwen3.6 Max Preview | Step 3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 51.5 | 40.5 |
| Released | 2026-04-20 | — |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |
| Context window | 262K | — |
| Max output | 66K | — |
| Input $ / M tokens | $1.30 | — |
| Output $ / M tokens | $7.80 | — |
| Results tracked | 29 | 17 |
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Category by category
Coding Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 48.7 (#54), Step 3: 40.1 (#147)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Max Preview | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1471 | 1367 |
| SWE-bench Verified | 76.7% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1482 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Qwen3.6 Max Preview: —, Step 3: —
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Max Preview | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Vending-Bench 2 | 4,254 | — |
Reasoning Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 41.7 (#53), Step 3: 28.4 (#105)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Max Preview | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1457 | 1355 |
| SimpleBench | 63% | — |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 62.3% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 74.1% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 20% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 19% | — |
| DTBench | 87.2% | — |
| LMCA | 42.5% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 149.24 | — |
Math Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 54.1 (#46), Step 3: 37.6 (#148)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Max Preview | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1465 | 1366 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 91.1% | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 23.1% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | 4.2% | — |
Knowledge Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 57.6 (#39), Step 3: 36.8 (#164)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Max Preview | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1478 | 1333 |
| GPQA Diamond | 87.4% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 52% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Qwen3.6 Max Preview: —, Step 3: 35.5 (#86)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Max Preview | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1177 |
Multilingual Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 54.2 (#48), Step 3: 46.3 (#159)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Max Preview | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1437 | 1327 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1487 | 1397 |
| LMArena Russian | 1445 | 1331 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1454 | 1371 |
| LMArena French | 1449 | — |
| LMArena German | — | 1371 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1269 |
Instruction Following Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 75.7 (#55), Step 3: 70.4 (#164)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Max Preview | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1438 | 1332 |
Long Context Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 44.6 (#61), Step 3: 40.3 (#157)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Max Preview | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1457 | 1326 |
Writing & Preference Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 63.8 (#60), Step 3: 54.3 (#151)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Max Preview | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1447 | 1350 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1435 | 1321 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1456 | 1341 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Qwen3.6 Max Preview better than Step 3?
Qwen3.6 Max Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 51.5 to 40.5 on the Noometry Index.
Is Qwen3.6 Max Preview or Step 3 better for coding?
Qwen3.6 Max Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 48.7 versus 40.1 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Qwen3.6 Max Preview and Step 3 share?
13 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen3.6 Max Preview has 29 scored results on Noometry and Step 3 has 17.