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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

MiniMax-M2 Her vs Qwen3.6 27B

Qwen3.6 27B comes out ahead, 56 to 45 on our weighted score, though MiniMax-M2 Her is 2.6× cheaper per token.

  1. MiniMax

    MiniMax-M2 Her

    Released Jan 23, 2026

    45/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.30 / $1.20
    • Context66K
    Full specs Remove MiniMax-M2 Her
  2. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.6 27B

    Released Apr 22, 2026

    56/100
    • ECI146.5
    • Price$0.60 / $3.60
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.6 27B

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Qwen3.6 27B is our pick

Qwen3.6 27B is the better all-round choice, scoring 56/100 against MiniMax-M2 Her (45). It leads on inputs & features and context window. MiniMax-M2 Her wins on price. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.

  • CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
  • Lowest priceMiniMax-M2 HerMiniMax-M2 Her $0.525 · Qwen3.6 27B $1.35 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3.6 27BQwen3.6 27B 262,144 · MiniMax-M2 Her 65,536 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.6 27BMiniMax-M2 Her: Text · Qwen3.6 27B: Text, Images, Audio, Video
  • Self-hostingQwen3.6 27BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightMiniMax-M2 HerQwen3.6 27B
Price50%6344
Inputs & features30%3590
Context window20%1237
Overall100%45/10056/100

Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.

02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

MiniMax-M2 Her vs Qwen3.6 27B specifications side by side
SpecificationMiniMax-M2 HerMiniMaxQwen3.6 27BAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)—146.5
ECI rank—#68 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions—85.9%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—35.1%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—91.1%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.30 (best)$0.60
Output$1.20 (best)$3.60
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.525 (best)$1.35
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 4 providersOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window65,536 tokens262,144 tokens (best)
Max output2,048 tokens65,536 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoYes
VideoNoYes
ReasoningYesYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpen
API model ID—qwen3.6-27b
API providers427 (best)
ReleasedJan 23, 2026Apr 22, 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 Her$5.40
  • Qwen3.6 27B$13.20
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: MiniMax-M2 Her or Qwen3.6 27B?

Qwen3.6 27B is the better all-round choice, scoring 56/100 against MiniMax-M2 Her (45). It leads on inputs & features and context window. MiniMax-M2 Her wins on price. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.

Which is cheaper, MiniMax-M2 Her or Qwen3.6 27B?

MiniMax-M2 Her is cheaper at $0.30 input / $1.20 output per million tokens (median across 4 API providers). Qwen3.6 27B 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 Her versus $1.35 for Qwen3.6 27B (2.6× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. MiniMax-M2 Her has not been scored yet and Qwen3.6 27B has an ECI of 146.5.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for MiniMax-M2 Her and Qwen3.6 27B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3.6 27B has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 65,536 for MiniMax-M2 Her. Maximum output per response: MiniMax-M2 Her up to 2,048, Qwen3.6 27B up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

MiniMax-M2 Her accepts text; Qwen3.6 27B accepts text, images, audio and video. Qwen3.6 27B handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3.6 27B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; MiniMax-M2 Her is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.6 27B is the newest, released Apr 22, 2026. MiniMax-M2 Her came out Jan 23, 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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