Model comparison
Qwen3.6 Plus vs Sonar
Qwen3.6 Plus is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.5 to 38.5 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 0 shared benchmarks.
Alibaba (Qwen)
PerplexitySummary
- The widest gap is in math, where Qwen3.6 Plus leads 51.8 to 33.7.
- Sonar is cheaper at $1 / $1 per million input/output tokens, against $0.50 / $3 for Qwen3.6 Plus.
- Qwen3.6 Plus accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 128K.
Side by side
| Qwen3.6 Plus | Sonar | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | Perplexity |
| Noometry Index | 47.5 | 38.5 |
| Released | 2026-03-31 | 2024-01-01 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Context window | 1M | 128K |
| Max output | 66K | 4K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.50 | $1 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $3 | $1 |
| Results tracked | 37 | 7 |
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Category by category
Coding Qwen3.6 Plus leads
Qwen3.6 Plus: 40.8 (#130), Sonar: 35.7 (#221)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Plus | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | 57.9% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1461 | — |
| SciCode | 40.7% | — |
| LiveBench Coding | — | 35.1% |
| LMArena Coding | 1467 | — |
| ALE-Bench | 670.15 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Qwen3.6 Plus: —, Sonar: —
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Plus | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| Vending-Bench 2 | 5,115 | — |
Reasoning Qwen3.6 Plus leads
Qwen3.6 Plus: 29.3 (#93), Sonar: 21.1 (#227)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Plus | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| NYT Connections (extended) | 60.3% | — |
| CritPt | 2.9% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 17% | — |
| Thematic Generalization | 59.5% | — |
| LiveBench Reasoning | — | 46.3% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1449 | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 12% | — |
| DTBench | 81.9% | — |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | — | 37.9% |
| LMCA | 33.1% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 147.65 | — |
| LiveBench | — | 46.9% |
Math Qwen3.6 Plus leads
Qwen3.6 Plus: 51.8 (#54), Sonar: 33.7 (#200)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Plus | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 38.2% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 93.3% | — |
| LiveBench Math | — | 41.6% |
| LMArena Math | 1450 | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 26.2% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | 8.3% | — |
Knowledge Not comparable
Qwen3.6 Plus: 56.1 (#45), Sonar: —
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Plus | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 88.4% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 44.1% | — |
| LMArena Expert | 1454 | — |
Multilingual Not comparable
Qwen3.6 Plus: 53.3 (#70), Sonar: —
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Plus | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1424 | — |
| LMArena Chinese | 1477 | — |
| LMArena French | 1455 | — |
| LMArena German | 1452 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1389 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1379 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1434 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1432 | — |
Instruction Following Qwen3.6 Plus leads
Qwen3.6 Plus: 75.0 (#74), Sonar: 71.4 (#150)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Plus | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Instruction Following | — | 76.2% |
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1425 | — |
Long Context Not comparable
Qwen3.6 Plus: 45.2 (#49), Sonar: —
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Plus | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| CL-bench | 20.3% | — |
| LMArena Longer Query | 1439 | — |
Writing & Preference Qwen3.6 Plus leads
Qwen3.6 Plus: 62.2 (#82), Sonar: 52.6 (#167)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Plus | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1437 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1404 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1438 | — |
| LiveBench Language | — | 44.1% |
Frequently asked questions
Is Qwen3.6 Plus better than Sonar?
Qwen3.6 Plus is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.5 to 38.5 on the Noometry Index.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6 Plus or Sonar?
Sonar is cheaper. It lists at $1 per million input tokens and $1 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 Plus lists at $0.50 and $3.
Is Qwen3.6 Plus or Sonar better for coding?
Qwen3.6 Plus scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.8 versus 35.7 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3.6 Plus does, with 1M tokens against 128K.
How many benchmarks do Qwen3.6 Plus and Sonar share?
0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen3.6 Plus has 37 scored results on Noometry and Sonar has 7.