ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3.6 27B vs Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite vs GLM-5

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite comes out ahead, 70 to 65 and 55 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.6 27B

    Released Apr 22, 2026

    65/100
    • ECI146.5
    • Price$0.60 / $3.60
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.6 27B
  2. Our pick

    Google

    Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite

    Released Jul 21, 2026

    70/100
    • ECI145.1
    • Price$0.30 / $2.50
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite

  3. Z.ai (Zhipu)

    GLM-5

    Released Feb 12, 2026

    55/100
    • ECI145.8
    • Price$1.00 / $3.20
    • Context205K
    Full specs Remove GLM-5
01 — Verdict

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is our pick

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 70/100 against Qwen3.6 27B (65) and GLM-5 (55). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3.6 27BCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.6 27B 146.5 · GLM-5 145.8 · Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 145.1
  • Lowest priceGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGemini 3.5 Flash Lite $0.85 · Qwen3.6 27B $1.35 · GLM-5 $1.55 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGemini 3.5 Flash Lite 1,048,576 · Qwen3.6 27B 262,144 · GLM-5 204,800 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemini 3.5 Flash LiteQwen3.6 27B: Text, Images, Audio, Video · Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video · GLM-5: Text
  • Self-hostingQwen3.6 27B and GLM-5Publishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3.6 27BGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGLM-5
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%747273
Price25%445341
Inputs & features15%9010035
Context window10%376132
Overall100%65/10070/10055/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3.6 27B vs Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite vs GLM-5 specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.6 27BAlibaba (Qwen)Gemini 3.5 Flash LiteGoogleGLM-5Z.ai (Zhipu)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)146.5 (best)145.1145.8
ECI rank#68 of 148 (best)#79 of 148#74 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions85.9%83.3%87.8% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics35.1% (best)26.0%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics91.1% (best)71.1%80.0%
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues——72.1%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.60$0.30 (best)$1.00
Output$3.60$2.50 (best)$3.20
Cached input—$0.03 (best)$0.20
Blended (3:1)$1.35$0.85 (best)$1.55
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Google APIOfficial Z.AI API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)204,800 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens65,536 tokens131,072 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesNo
PDFsNoYesNo
AudioYesYesNo
VideoYesYesNo
ReasoningYesYesminimal · low · medium · highYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesYesNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietaryOpen
API model IDqwen3.6-27bgemini-3.5-flash-liteglm-5
API providers27 (best)2627 (best)
ReleasedApr 22, 2026Jul 21, 2026Feb 12, 2026
Knowledge cutoff—Mar 2026—
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.

  • Qwen3.6 27B$13.20
  • Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite$8.00
  • GLM-5$16.40
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3.6 27B, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite or GLM-5?

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is the better all-round choice, scoring 70/100 against Qwen3.6 27B (65) and GLM-5 (55). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6 27B, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite or GLM-5?

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is cheaper at $0.30 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (official Google API price). Qwen3.6 27B costs $0.60 input / $3.60 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price); GLM-5 costs $1.00 input / $3.20 output per million tokens (official Z.AI API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.85 per million tokens for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite versus $1.35 for Qwen3.6 27B (1.6× as much) and $1.55 for GLM-5 (1.8× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3.6 27B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.6 27B 146.5 (#68 of 148), GLM-5 145.8 (#74 of 148) and Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 145.1 (#79 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (144.2–147.9 vs 143.9–147.7), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — GLM-5 87.8%, Qwen3.6 27B 85.9%, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 83.3%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.6 27B 91.1%, GLM-5 80.0%, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite 71.1%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3.6 27B and Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3.6 27B 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?

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3.6 27B and 204,800 for GLM-5. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.6 27B up to 65,536, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite up to 65,536, GLM-5 up to 131,072 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3.6 27B accepts text, images, audio and video; Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video; GLM-5 accepts text. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3.6 27B and GLM-5 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is the newest, released Jul 21, 2026. Qwen3.6 27B came out Apr 22, 2026; GLM-5 came out Feb 12, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite Mar 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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