# Qwen3.6 Plus vs Step 5 Preview

> Qwen3.6 Plus and Step 5 Preview score almost the same on the Noometry Index (47.5 vs 47.9), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/qwen3-6-plus-vs-step-5-preview
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 16

## Summary

- They share 16 benchmarks with published results for both. Qwen3.6 Plus scores higher in 3 categories and Step 5 Preview in 5 categories; 4 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen3.6 Plus leads 56.1 to 41.2.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is SciCode: 40.7% for Qwen3.6 Plus and 58.9% for Step 5 Preview.
- Qwen3.6 Plus is cheaper at $0.50 / $3 per million input/output tokens, against $1 / $2.70 for Step 5 Preview.
- Step 5 Preview accepts more context: 1.02M tokens versus 1M.

## Snapshot

| | Qwen3.6 Plus | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 47.5 | 47.9 |
| Rank | 62 | 58 |
| Context | 1M | 1.02M |
| Input $/M | $0.50 | $1 |
| Output $/M | $3 | $2.70 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Qwen3.6 Plus: 40.8 (#130)
- Step 5 Preview: 51.8 (#36)

| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Plus | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1461 | 1564 |
| SciCode | 40.7% | 58.9% |
| LMArena Coding | 1467 | 1480 |
| SWE-bench Verified | 57.9% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 670.15 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Qwen3.6 Plus: —
- Step 5 Preview: —

| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Plus | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Vending-Bench 2 | 5,115 | — |

## Reasoning

- Qwen3.6 Plus: 29.3 (#93)
- Step 5 Preview: 40.0 (#57)

| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Plus | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 2.9% | 20.9% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1449 | 1465 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 60.3% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 17% | — |
| Thematic Generalization | 59.5% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 12% | — |
| DTBench | 81.9% | — |
| LMCA | 33.1% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 147.65 | — |

## Math

- Qwen3.6 Plus: 51.8 (#54)
- Step 5 Preview: 46.1 (#72)

| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Plus | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1450 | 1470 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 38.2% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 93.3% | — |
| ProofBench | — | 42% |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 26.2% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | 8.3% | — |

## Knowledge

- Qwen3.6 Plus: 56.1 (#45)
- Step 5 Preview: 41.2 (#112)

| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Plus | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1454 | 1470 |
| GPQA Diamond | 88.4% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 44.1% | — |

## Multimodal

- Qwen3.6 Plus: —
- Step 5 Preview: 41.0 (#41)

| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Plus | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1267 |

## Multilingual

- Qwen3.6 Plus: 53.3 (#70)
- Step 5 Preview: 53.8 (#54)

| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Plus | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1424 | 1432 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1477 | 1519 |
| LMArena Russian | 1434 | 1436 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1432 | 1439 |
| LMArena French | 1455 | — |
| LMArena German | 1452 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1389 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1379 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Qwen3.6 Plus: 75.0 (#74)
- Step 5 Preview: 76.0 (#50)

| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Plus | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1425 | 1444 |

## Long Context

- Qwen3.6 Plus: 45.2 (#49)
- Step 5 Preview: 44.5 (#64)

| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Plus | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1439 | 1455 |
| CL-bench | 20.3% | — |

## Writing & Preference

- Qwen3.6 Plus: 62.2 (#82)
- Step 5 Preview: 62.8 (#71)

| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 Plus | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1437 | 1442 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1404 | 1410 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1438 | 1447 |

## FAQ

### Is Qwen3.6 Plus better than Step 5 Preview?

Qwen3.6 Plus and Step 5 Preview score almost the same on the Noometry Index (47.5 vs 47.9), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

### Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6 Plus or Step 5 Preview?

Qwen3.6 Plus is cheaper. It lists at $0.50 per million input tokens and $3 per million output tokens; Step 5 Preview lists at $1 and $2.70.

### Is Qwen3.6 Plus or Step 5 Preview better for coding?

Step 5 Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 51.8 versus 40.8 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Step 5 Preview does, with 1.02M tokens against 1M.

### How many benchmarks do Qwen3.6 Plus and Step 5 Preview share?

16 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen3.6 Plus has 37 scored results on Noometry and Step 5 Preview has 18.