# Grok-3 mini vs Qwen3.6 Max Preview

> Qwen3.6 Max Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 51.1 to 41.0 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/grok-3-mini-vs-qwen3-6-max-preview
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 18

## Summary

- They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. Grok-3 mini scores higher in 1 category and Qwen3.6 Max Preview in 7 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads 40.8 to 13.8.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 77.8% for Grok-3 mini and 91.1% for Qwen3.6 Max Preview.

## Snapshot

| | Grok-3 mini | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | xAI | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 41.0 | 51.1 |
| Rank | 130 | 36 |
| Context | — | 262K |
| Input $/M | — | $1.30 |
| Output $/M | — | $7.80 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Grok-3 mini: 40.4 (#126)
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 48.6 (#50)

| Benchmark | Grok-3 mini | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1380 | 1472 |
| SWE-bench Verified | — | 76.7% |
| Aider Polyglot | 49.3% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1482 |
| WeirdML | 42.6% | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Grok-3 mini: —
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview: —

| Benchmark | Grok-3 mini | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 4,254 |

## Reasoning

- Grok-3 mini: 13.8 (#323)
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 40.8 (#47)

| Benchmark | Grok-3 mini | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1374 | 1457 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 140.35 | 149.27 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 0.4% | — |
| SimpleBench | — | 63% |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 61.3% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 74.1% |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 16.5% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 20% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 19% |
| DTBench | — | 87.2% |
| LMCA | — | 42.5% |

## Math

- Grok-3 mini: 40.3 (#78)
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 52.2 (#40)

| Benchmark | Grok-3 mini | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 77.8% | 91.1% |
| LMArena Math | 1386 | 1465 |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 5.9% | 23.1% |
| Omni-MATH | 31.8% | — |
| MATH Level 5 | 90.9% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | — | 4.2% |

## Knowledge

- Grok-3 mini: 46.3 (#75)
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 57.6 (#35)

| Benchmark | Grok-3 mini | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 76.3% | 87.4% |
| LMArena Expert | 1395 | 1476 |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 52% |
| MMLU-Pro | 79.9% | — |
| Confabulations | 10.8% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 67.5% | — |

## Multilingual

- Grok-3 mini: 48.3 (#141)
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 54.3 (#46)

| Benchmark | Grok-3 mini | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1352 | 1436 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1387 | 1487 |
| LMArena French | 1357 | 1449 |
| LMArena Russian | 1352 | 1444 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1379 | 1452 |
| LMArena German | 1350 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1343 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1336 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Grok-3 mini: 78.7 (#8)
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 75.8 (#51)

| Benchmark | Grok-3 mini | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1356 | 1437 |
| IFEval | 95.1% | — |

## Long Context

- Grok-3 mini: 41.0 (#142)
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 44.6 (#59)

| Benchmark | Grok-3 mini | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1372 | 1457 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | 66.7% | — |

## Writing & Preference

- Grok-3 mini: 52.7 (#163)
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 64.0 (#58)

| Benchmark | Grok-3 mini | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1370 | 1447 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1342 | 1435 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1355 | 1456 |
| Short-Story Creative Writing | 73.5% | — |
| WildBench | 65.1% | — |

## FAQ

### Is Grok-3 mini better than Qwen3.6 Max Preview?

Qwen3.6 Max Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 51.1 to 41.0 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Grok-3 mini or Qwen3.6 Max Preview better for coding?

Qwen3.6 Max Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 48.6 versus 40.4 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Grok-3 mini and Qwen3.6 Max Preview share?

18 benchmarks have published results for both models. Grok-3 mini has 35 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.6 Max Preview has 29.