ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Gemini 2.5 Flash vs Qwen3.6 Plus

Too close to call on our weighted score (Gemini 2.5 Flash 66, Qwen3.6 Plus 66). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Google

    Gemini 2.5 Flash

    Released Jun 17, 2025

    66/100
    • ECI140.6
    • Price$0.30 / $2.50
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Gemini 2.5 Flash

  2. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.6 Plus

    Released Apr 2, 2026

    66/100
    • ECI147.8
    • Price$0.50 / $3.00
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.6 Plus

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Gemini 2.5 Flash 66/100, Qwen3.6 Plus 66/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.6 Plus for raw capability, Gemini 2.5 Flash on price and Gemini 2.5 Flash for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3.6 PlusCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.6 Plus 147.8 · Gemini 2.5 Flash 140.6
  • Lowest priceGemini 2.5 FlashGemini 2.5 Flash $0.85 · Qwen3.6 Plus $1.13 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGemini 2.5 FlashGemini 2.5 Flash 1,048,576 · Qwen3.6 Plus 1,000,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemini 2.5 FlashGemini 2.5 Flash: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Qwen3.6 Plus: Text, Images, Video
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGemini 2.5 FlashQwen3.6 Plus
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%6574
Price25%5145
Inputs & features15%10080
Context window10%6160
Overall100%66/10066/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Gemini 2.5 Flash vs Qwen3.6 Plus specifications side by side
SpecificationGemini 2.5 FlashGoogleQwen3.6 PlusAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)140.6147.8 (best)
ECI rank#110 of 165#69 of 165 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions—88.4%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—38.3%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—93.3%
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues—57.9%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—44.1%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.30 (best)$0.50
Output$2.50 (best)$3.00
Cached input$0.03 (best)$0.05
Blended (3:1)$0.85 (best)$1.13
Long-context rateSame rateOver 256K: $2.00 / $6.00
Price sourceOfficial Google APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window1,048,576 tokens (best)1,000,000 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens65,536 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsYesNo
AudioYesNo
VideoYesYes
ReasoningYesYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
API model IDgemini-2.5-flashqwen3.6-plus
API providers32 (best)22
ReleasedJun 17, 2025Apr 2, 2026
Knowledge cutoffJan 2025Apr 2025
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • Gemini 2.5 Flash$8.00
  • Qwen3.6 Plus$11.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Gemini 2.5 Flash or Qwen3.6 Plus?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Gemini 2.5 Flash 66/100, Qwen3.6 Plus 66/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.6 Plus for raw capability, Gemini 2.5 Flash on price and Gemini 2.5 Flash for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 2.5 Flash or Qwen3.6 Plus?

Gemini 2.5 Flash is cheaper at $0.30 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (official Google API price). Qwen3.6 Plus costs $0.50 input / $3.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.85 per million tokens for Gemini 2.5 Flash versus $1.13 for Qwen3.6 Plus (1.3× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3.6 Plus scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.6 Plus 147.8 (#69 of 165) and Gemini 2.5 Flash 140.6 (#110 of 165). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (145.8–149.6 vs 138.4–142.1), so the gap is a real one.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemini 2.5 Flash yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3.6 Plus leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemini 2.5 Flash has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 1,000,000 for Qwen3.6 Plus. Maximum output per response: Gemini 2.5 Flash up to 65,536, Qwen3.6 Plus up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Gemini 2.5 Flash accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Qwen3.6 Plus accepts text, images and video. Gemini 2.5 Flash handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

No. Gemini 2.5 Flash and Qwen3.6 Plus are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.6 Plus is the newest, released Apr 2, 2026. Gemini 2.5 Flash came out Jun 17, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 2.5 Flash Jan 2025, Qwen3.6 Plus Apr 2025.

How do you decide the winner?

Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Nov 2, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

Related comparisons