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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

MiniMax-M2.7 vs Qwen3.5 397B-A17B vs Qwen3.6 35B-A3B

Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 68, Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 65, MiniMax-M2.7 61). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. MiniMax

    MiniMax-M2.7

    Released Mar 18, 2026

    61/100
    • ECI145.9
    • Price$0.30 / $1.20
    • Context205K
    Full specs Remove MiniMax-M2.7

  2. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.5 397B-A17B

    Released Feb 15, 2026

    65/100
    • ECI146.7
    • Price$0.60 / $3.60
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.5 397B-A17B

  3. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.6 35B-A3B

    Released Apr 17, 2026

    68/100
    • ECI143.9
    • Price$0.248 / $1.49
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.6 35B-A3B
01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 68/100, Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 65/100, MiniMax-M2.7 61/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.5 397B-A17B for raw capability and MiniMax-M2.7 on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3.5 397B-A17BCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 146.7 · 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 · Qwen3.5 397B-A17B $1.35 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3.5 397B-A17B and Qwen3.6 35B-A3BQwen3.5 397B-A17B 262,144 · Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 262,144 · MiniMax-M2.7 204,800 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.5 397B-A17B and Qwen3.6 35B-A3BMiniMax-M2.7: Text · Qwen3.5 397B-A17B: Text, Images, Audio, Video · 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-M2.7Qwen3.5 397B-A17BQwen3.6 35B-A3B
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%737470
Price25%634462
Inputs & features15%359090
Context window10%323737
Overall100%61/10065/10068/100
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 Qwen3.5 397B-A17B vs Qwen3.6 35B-A3B specifications side by side
SpecificationMiniMax-M2.7MiniMaxQwen3.5 397B-A17BAlibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.6 35B-A3BAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)145.9146.7 (best)143.9
ECI rank#73 of 148#67 of 148 (best)#83 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions—86.4% (best)84.9%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—31.2% (best)20.4%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—88.9% (best)86.7%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.30$0.60$0.248 (best)
Output$1.20 (best)$3.60$1.49
Cached input$0.06——
Blended (3:1)$0.525 (best)$1.35$0.557
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial MiniMax (minimax.io) APIOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window204,800 tokens262,144 tokens (best)262,144 tokens (best)
Max output131,072 tokens (best)65,536 tokens65,536 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoYesYes
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoYesYes
VideoNoYesYes
ReasoningYesYesYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoYesYes
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenOpen
API model IDMiniMax-M2.7qwen3.5-397b-a17bqwen3.6-35b-a3b
API providers292334 (best)
ReleasedMar 18, 2026Feb 15, 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
  • Qwen3.5 397B-A17B$13.20
  • Qwen3.6 35B-A3B$5.45
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: MiniMax-M2.7, Qwen3.5 397B-A17B or Qwen3.6 35B-A3B?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 68/100, Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 65/100, MiniMax-M2.7 61/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.5 397B-A17B for raw capability and MiniMax-M2.7 on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, MiniMax-M2.7, Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 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); Qwen3.5 397B-A17B costs $0.60 input / $3.60 output per million tokens (official Alibaba 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 $1.35 for Qwen3.5 397B-A17B (2.6× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3.5 397B-A17B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 146.7 (#67 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 (144.8–148.2 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, Qwen3.5 397B-A17B and Qwen3.6 35B-A3B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 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?

Qwen3.5 397B-A17B and Qwen3.6 35B-A3B have the largest context windows (262,144 and 262,144 tokens), against 204,800 for MiniMax-M2.7. Maximum output per response: MiniMax-M2.7 up to 131,072, Qwen3.5 397B-A17B up to 65,536, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

MiniMax-M2.7 accepts text; Qwen3.5 397B-A17B accepts text, images, audio and video; Qwen3.6 35B-A3B accepts text, images, audio and video. Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 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?

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B is the newest, released Apr 17, 2026. MiniMax-M2.7 came out Mar 18, 2026; Qwen3.5 397B-A17B came out Feb 15, 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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