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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Qwen3 235B-A22B

Gemini 3.6 Flash comes out ahead, 73 to 51 on our weighted score, though Qwen3 235B-A22B is 18% cheaper per token.

  1. Our pick

    Google

    Gemini 3.6 Flash

    Released Jul 21, 2026

    73/100
    • ECI154.3
    • Price$0.75 / $3.75
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Gemini 3.6 Flash

  2. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 235B-A22B

    Released Apr 28, 2025

    51/100
    • ECI139.4
    • Price$0.70 / $2.80
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 235B-A22B

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Gemini 3.6 Flash is our pick

Gemini 3.6 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 73/100 against Qwen3 235B-A22B (51). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. Qwen3 235B-A22B wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityGemini 3.6 FlashCapabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 3.6 Flash 154.3 · Qwen3 235B-A22B 139.4
  • Lowest priceQwen3 235B-A22BQwen3 235B-A22B $1.23 · Gemini 3.6 Flash $1.50 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGemini 3.6 FlashGemini 3.6 Flash 1,048,576 · Qwen3 235B-A22B 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemini 3.6 FlashGemini 3.6 Flash: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · Qwen3 235B-A22B: Text
  • Self-hostingQwen3 235B-A22BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGemini 3.6 FlashQwen3 235B-A22B
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%8465
Price25%4246
Inputs & features15%10035
Context window10%6124
Overall100%73/10051/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Qwen3 235B-A22B specifications side by side
SpecificationGemini 3.6 FlashGoogleQwen3 235B-A22BAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)154.3 (best)139.4
ECI rank#34 of 148 (best)#103 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions94.1% (best)70.7%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics59.0%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics94.2%—
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions66.2%—
Price per million tokens
Input$0.75$0.70 (best)
Output$3.75$2.80 (best)
Cached input$0.075—
Blended (3:1)$1.50$1.23 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Google APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window1,048,576 tokens (best)131,072 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens (best)16,384 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesNo
PDFsYesNo
AudioYesNo
VideoYesNo
ReasoningYesminimal · low · medium · highYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpen
API model IDgemini-3.6-flashqwen3-235b-a22b
API providers25 (best)7
ReleasedJul 21, 2026Apr 28, 2025
Knowledge cutoffMar 2026Apr 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 3.6 Flash$15.00
  • Qwen3 235B-A22B$12.60
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Gemini 3.6 Flash or Qwen3 235B-A22B?

Gemini 3.6 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 73/100 against Qwen3 235B-A22B (51). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. Qwen3 235B-A22B wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.6 Flash or Qwen3 235B-A22B?

Qwen3 235B-A22B is cheaper at $0.70 input / $2.80 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Gemini 3.6 Flash costs $0.75 input / $3.75 output per million tokens (official Google API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $1.23 per million tokens for Qwen3 235B-A22B versus $1.50 for Gemini 3.6 Flash (1.2× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Gemini 3.6 Flash scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Gemini 3.6 Flash 154.3 (#34 of 148) and Qwen3 235B-A22B 139.4 (#103 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (152.6–156.3 vs 135.2–140.8), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Gemini 3.6 Flash 94.1%, Qwen3 235B-A22B 70.7%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemini 3.6 Flash and Qwen3 235B-A22B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Gemini 3.6 Flash 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 3.6 Flash has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 131,072 for Qwen3 235B-A22B. Maximum output per response: Gemini 3.6 Flash up to 65,536, Qwen3 235B-A22B up to 16,384 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Gemini 3.6 Flash accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; Qwen3 235B-A22B accepts text. Gemini 3.6 Flash handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3 235B-A22B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Gemini 3.6 Flash is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Gemini 3.6 Flash is the newest, released Jul 21, 2026. Qwen3 235B-A22B came out Apr 28, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 3.6 Flash Mar 2026, Qwen3 235B-A22B 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 Oct 4, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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