Qwen3 235B-A22B vs Qwen3.6 Max Preview vs DeepSeek-R1
Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen3.6 Max Preview 54, Qwen3 235B-A22B 51, DeepSeek-R1 51). The right pick depends on what you value most.
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 235B-A22B
51/100- ECI139.4
- Price$0.70 / $2.80
- Context131K
- Alibaba (Qwen)
Qwen3.6 Max Preview
54/100- ECI149.2
- Price$1.30 / $7.80
- Context262K
DeepSeekDeepSeek-R1
51/100- ECI139.0
- Price$0.70 / $2.60
- Context128K
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Qwen3.6 Max Preview 54/100, Qwen3 235B-A22B 51/100, DeepSeek-R1 51/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.6 Max Preview for raw capability and DeepSeek-R1 on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityQwen3.6 Max PreviewCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.6 Max Preview 149.2 · Qwen3 235B-A22B 139.4 · DeepSeek-R1 139.0
- Lowest priceDeepSeek-R1DeepSeek-R1 $1.18 · Qwen3 235B-A22B $1.23 · Qwen3.6 Max Preview $2.92 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen3.6 Max PreviewQwen3.6 Max Preview 262,144 · Qwen3 235B-A22B 131,072 · DeepSeek-R1 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsSame inputsQwen3 235B-A22B: Text · Qwen3.6 Max Preview: Text · DeepSeek-R1: Text
- Self-hostingQwen3 235B-A22B and DeepSeek-R1Publishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Qwen3 235B-A22B | Qwen3.6 Max Preview | DeepSeek-R1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 65 | 77 | 64 |
| Price | 25% | 46 | 28 | 47 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 35 | 35 | 35 |
| Context window | 10% | 24 | 37 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 51/100 | 54/100 | 51/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Qwen3 235B-A22BAlibaba (Qwen) | Qwen3.6 Max PreviewAlibaba (Qwen) | DeepSeek-R1DeepSeek |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 139.4 | 149.2 (best) | 139.0 |
| ECI rank | #103 of 148 | #54 of 148 (best) | #104 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 70.7% | 87.4% (best) | 71.7% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | — | 91.1% (best) | 53.3% |
| SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues | — | 76.7% | — |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | — | 52.0% | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.70 (best) | $1.30 | $0.70 (best) |
| Output | $2.80 | $7.80 | $2.60 (best) |
| Cached input | — | $0.13 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $1.23 | $2.92 | $1.18 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Alibaba API | Official Alibaba API | Median of 11 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 131,072 tokens | 262,144 tokens (best) | 128,000 tokens |
| Max output | 16,384 tokens | 65,536 tokens (best) | 32,768 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | No | No |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Proprietary | Open |
| API model ID | qwen3-235b-a22b | qwen3.6-max-preview | — |
| API providers | 7 | 10 | 12 (best) |
| Released | Apr 28, 2025 | Apr 20, 2026 | Jan 20, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Apr 2025 | Apr 2025 | Jul 2024 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Qwen3 235B-A22B$12.60
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview$28.60
- DeepSeek-R1$12.20
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Qwen3 235B-A22B, Qwen3.6 Max Preview or DeepSeek-R1?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Qwen3.6 Max Preview 54/100, Qwen3 235B-A22B 51/100, DeepSeek-R1 51/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.6 Max Preview for raw capability and DeepSeek-R1 on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3 235B-A22B, Qwen3.6 Max Preview or DeepSeek-R1?
DeepSeek-R1 is cheaper at $0.70 input / $2.60 output per million tokens (median across 11 API providers). Qwen3 235B-A22B costs $0.70 input / $2.80 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price); Qwen3.6 Max Preview costs $1.30 input / $7.80 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $1.18 per million tokens for DeepSeek-R1 versus $1.23 for Qwen3 235B-A22B (1× as much) and $2.92 for Qwen3.6 Max Preview (2.5× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Qwen3.6 Max Preview scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.6 Max Preview 149.2 (#54 of 148), Qwen3 235B-A22B 139.4 (#103 of 148) and DeepSeek-R1 139.0 (#104 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (147.6–152.0 vs 135.2–140.8), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3.6 Max Preview 87.4%, DeepSeek-R1 71.7%, Qwen3 235B-A22B 70.7%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 235B-A22B and DeepSeek-R1 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3.6 Max Preview 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?
Qwen3.6 Max Preview has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 131,072 for Qwen3 235B-A22B and 128,000 for DeepSeek-R1. Maximum output per response: Qwen3 235B-A22B up to 16,384, Qwen3.6 Max Preview up to 65,536, DeepSeek-R1 up to 32,768 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Qwen3 235B-A22B accepts text; Qwen3.6 Max Preview accepts text; DeepSeek-R1 accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.
Are any of these open source?
Qwen3 235B-A22B and DeepSeek-R1 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Qwen3.6 Max Preview is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Qwen3.6 Max Preview is the newest, released Apr 20, 2026. Qwen3 235B-A22B came out Apr 28, 2025; DeepSeek-R1 came out Jan 20, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3 235B-A22B Apr 2025, Qwen3.6 Max Preview Apr 2025, DeepSeek-R1 Jul 2024.
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.
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