ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

MiniMax-M2.7 vs Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B vs Qwen3.6 35B-A3B

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B comes out ahead, 68 to 62 and 61 on our weighted score, though MiniMax-M2.7 is 6% cheaper per token.

  1. MiniMax

    MiniMax-M2.7

    Released Mar 18, 2026

    61/100
    • ECI145.9
    • Price$0.30 / $1.20
    • Context205K
  2. NVIDIA

    Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B

    Released Jun 4, 2026

    62/100
    • ECI146.2
    • Price$0.50 / $2.50
    • Context1M
  3. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.6 35B-A3B

    Released Apr 17, 2026

    68/100
    • ECI143.9
    • Price$0.248 / $1.49
    • Context262K
01 — Verdict

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B is our pick

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B is the better all-round choice, scoring 68/100 against Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B (62) and MiniMax-M2.7 (61). It leads on inputs & features. Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B wins on context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityNemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55BCapabilities Index (ECI): Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B 146.2 · MiniMax-M2.7 145.9 · Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 143.9
  • Lowest priceMiniMax-M2.7MiniMax-M2.7 $0.525 · Qwen3.6 35B-A3B $0.557 · Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B $1.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextNemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55BNemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B 1,000,000 · Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 262,144 · MiniMax-M2.7 204,800 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.6 35B-A3BMiniMax-M2.7: Text · Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B: Text · Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: Text, Images, Audio, Video
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMiniMax-M2.7Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55BQwen3.6 35B-A3B
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%737370
Price25%635062
Inputs & features15%354590
Context window10%326037
Overall100%61/10062/10068/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

MiniMax-M2.7 vs Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B vs Qwen3.6 35B-A3B specifications side by side
SpecificationMiniMax-M2.7MiniMaxNemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55BNVIDIAQwen3.6 35B-A3BAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)145.9146.2 (best)143.9
ECI rank#73 of 148#70 of 148 (best)#83 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions—85.4% (best)84.9%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics——20.4%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—86.7%86.7%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.30$0.50$0.248 (best)
Output$1.20 (best)$2.50$1.49
Cached input$0.06 (best)$0.15—
Blended (3:1)$0.525 (best)$1.00$0.557
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial MiniMax (minimax.io) APIOfficial Nvidia APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window204,800 tokens1,000,000 tokens (best)262,144 tokens
Max output131,072 tokens (best)128,000 tokens65,536 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoNoYes
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoYes
VideoNoNoYes
ReasoningYesYesYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoYesYes
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenOpen
API model IDMiniMax-M2.7nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55bqwen3.6-35b-a3b
API providers292134 (best)
ReleasedMar 18, 2026Jun 4, 2026Apr 17, 2026
Knowledge cutoff———
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.

  • MiniMax-M2.7$5.40
  • Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B$10.00
  • Qwen3.6 35B-A3B$5.45
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: MiniMax-M2.7, Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B or Qwen3.6 35B-A3B?

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B is the better all-round choice, scoring 68/100 against Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B (62) and MiniMax-M2.7 (61). It leads on inputs & features. Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B wins on context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, MiniMax-M2.7, Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B or Qwen3.6 35B-A3B?

MiniMax-M2.7 is cheaper at $0.30 input / $1.20 output per million tokens (official MiniMax (minimax.io) API price). Qwen3.6 35B-A3B costs $0.248 input / $1.49 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price); Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B costs $0.50 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (official Nvidia API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.525 per million tokens for MiniMax-M2.7 versus $0.557 for Qwen3.6 35B-A3B (1.1× as much) and $1.00 for Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B (1.9× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B 146.2 (#70 of 148), MiniMax-M2.7 145.9 (#73 of 148) and Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 143.9 (#83 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (143.9–148.1 vs 138.2–148.0), so treat the gap as small.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for MiniMax-M2.7, Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B and Qwen3.6 35B-A3B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3.6 35B-A3B and 204,800 for MiniMax-M2.7. Maximum output per response: MiniMax-M2.7 up to 131,072, Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B up to 128,000, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

MiniMax-M2.7 accepts text; Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B accepts text; Qwen3.6 35B-A3B accepts text, images, audio and video. Qwen3.6 35B-A3B handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Yes, all three publish their weights, so you can self-host them.

Which is newer?

Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B is the newest, released Jun 4, 2026. Qwen3.6 35B-A3B came out Apr 17, 2026; MiniMax-M2.7 came out Mar 18, 2026.

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.