Noometry

Model comparison

Qwen3.6 Plus vs Qwen3 Max

Qwen3.6 Plus is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.5 to 43.7 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 30 shared benchmarks.

Qwen3.6 Plus Alibaba (Qwen)

47.5

Rank #62 Confirmed

Qwen3 Max Alibaba (Qwen)

43.7

Rank #87 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 30 benchmarks with published results for both. Qwen3.6 Plus scores higher in 5 categories and Qwen3 Max in 3 categories; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where Qwen3.6 Plus leads 51.8 to 38.7.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is NYT Connections (extended): 60.3% for Qwen3.6 Plus and 30.1% for Qwen3 Max.
  • Qwen3.6 Plus is cheaper at $0.50 / $3 per million input/output tokens, against $1.20 / $6 for Qwen3 Max.
  • Qwen3.6 Plus accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 262K.

Side by side

Qwen3.6 PlusQwen3 Max
ProviderAlibaba (Qwen)Alibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index47.543.7
Released2026-03-312025-09-23
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
Context window1M262K
Max output66K66K
Input $ / M tokens$0.50$1.20
Output $ / M tokens$3$6
Results tracked3733

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Category by category

Coding Qwen3 Max leads

Qwen3.6 Plus: 40.8 (#130), Qwen3 Max: 43.0 (#93)

BenchmarkQwen3.6 PlusQwen3 Max
LMArena Coding14671456
ALE-Bench670.15370.45
SWE-bench Verified57.9%—
LMArena WebDev1461—
SciCode40.7%—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Qwen3.6 Plus: —, Qwen3 Max: —

BenchmarkQwen3.6 PlusQwen3 Max
Vending-Bench 25,11571.56

Reasoning Qwen3.6 Plus leads

Qwen3.6 Plus: 29.3 (#93), Qwen3 Max: 22.6 (#190)

BenchmarkQwen3.6 PlusQwen3 Max
NYT Connections (extended)60.3%30.1%
Chess Puzzles17%4%
LMArena Hard Prompts14491448
Mystery Game Puzzles12%5%
DTBench81.9%82.1%
LMCA33.1%28.3%
Epoch Capabilities Index147.65142.38
Kagi LLM Benchmark—72.5%
CritPt2.9%—
Thematic Generalization59.5%—

Math Qwen3.6 Plus leads

Qwen3.6 Plus: 51.8 (#54), Qwen3 Max: 38.7 (#131)

BenchmarkQwen3.6 PlusQwen3 Max
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)38.2%18.9%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202593.3%73.3%
LMArena Math14501446
MATH Level 5—97.1%
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)26.2%—
FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1)8.3%—

Knowledge Qwen3.6 Plus leads

Qwen3.6 Plus: 56.1 (#45), Qwen3 Max: 48.1 (#78)

BenchmarkQwen3.6 PlusQwen3 Max
GPQA Diamond88.4%72.6%
SimpleQA Verified44.1%48.7%
LMArena Expert14541455

Multilingual Too close to call

Qwen3.6 Plus: 53.3 (#70), Qwen3 Max: 53.7 (#62)

BenchmarkQwen3.6 PlusQwen3 Max
LMArena Non-English14241429
LMArena Chinese14771478
LMArena French14551449
LMArena German14521463
LMArena Japanese13891397
LMArena Korean13791399
LMArena Russian14341428
LMArena Spanish14321462

Instruction Following Too close to call

Qwen3.6 Plus: 75.0 (#74), Qwen3 Max: 74.8 (#87)

BenchmarkQwen3.6 PlusQwen3 Max
LMArena Instruction Following14251419

Long Context Qwen3.6 Plus leads

Qwen3.6 Plus: 45.2 (#49), Qwen3 Max: 41.6 (#134)

BenchmarkQwen3.6 PlusQwen3 Max
CL-bench20.3%14.5%
LMArena Longer Query14391438
Fiction.LiveBench—66.7%

Writing & Preference Too close to call

Qwen3.6 Plus: 62.2 (#82), Qwen3 Max: 62.4 (#76)

BenchmarkQwen3.6 PlusQwen3 Max
LMArena Text14371439
LMArena Creative Writing14041402
LMArena Multi-Turn14381446

Frequently asked questions

Is Qwen3.6 Plus better than Qwen3 Max?

Qwen3.6 Plus is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.5 to 43.7 on the Noometry Index.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6 Plus or Qwen3 Max?

Qwen3.6 Plus is cheaper. It lists at $0.50 per million input tokens and $3 per million output tokens; Qwen3 Max lists at $1.20 and $6.

Is Qwen3.6 Plus or Qwen3 Max better for coding?

Qwen3 Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 43.0 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 Plus and Qwen3 Max share?

30 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen3.6 Plus has 37 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 Max has 33.

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