Qwen3.6 27B vs Qwen3.6 Max Preview vs GLM-5
Qwen3.6 27B comes out ahead, 65 to 55 and 54 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
- Our pick
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.6 27B
65/100- ECI146.5
- Price$0.60 / $3.60
- Context262K
- Alibaba (Qwen)
Qwen3.6 Max Preview
54/100- ECI149.2
- Price$1.30 / $7.80
- Context262K
Z.ai (Zhipu)GLM-5
55/100- ECI145.8
- Price$1.00 / $3.20
- Context205K
Qwen3.6 27B is our pick
Qwen3.6 27B is the better all-round choice, scoring 65/100 against GLM-5 (55) and Qwen3.6 Max Preview (54). It leads on price and inputs & features. Qwen3.6 Max Preview wins on capability. 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 · Qwen3.6 27B 146.5 · GLM-5 145.8
- Lowest priceQwen3.6 27BQwen3.6 27B $1.35 · GLM-5 $1.55 · Qwen3.6 Max Preview $2.92 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen3.6 27B and Qwen3.6 Max PreviewQwen3.6 27B 262,144 · Qwen3.6 Max Preview 262,144 · GLM-5 204,800 tokens
- Widest inputsQwen3.6 27BQwen3.6 27B: Text, Images, Audio, Video · Qwen3.6 Max Preview: Text · GLM-5: Text
- Self-hostingQwen3.6 27B and GLM-5Publishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Qwen3.6 27B | Qwen3.6 Max Preview | GLM-5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 74 | 77 | 73 |
| Price | 25% | 44 | 28 | 41 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 90 | 35 | 35 |
| Context window | 10% | 37 | 37 | 32 |
| Overall | 100% | 65/100 | 54/100 | 55/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Qwen3.6 27BAlibaba (Qwen) | Qwen3.6 Max PreviewAlibaba (Qwen) | GLM-5Z.ai (Zhipu) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 146.5 | 149.2 (best) | 145.8 |
| ECI rank | #68 of 148 | #54 of 148 (best) | #74 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 85.9% | 87.4% | 87.8% (best) |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 35.1% | — | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 91.1% (best) | 91.1% (best) | 80.0% |
| SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues | — | 76.7% (best) | 72.1% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | — | 52.0% | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.60 (best) | $1.30 | $1.00 |
| Output | $3.60 | $7.80 | $3.20 (best) |
| Cached input | — | $0.13 (best) | $0.20 |
| Blended (3:1) | $1.35 (best) | $2.92 | $1.55 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Alibaba API | Official Alibaba API | Official Z.AI API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 262,144 tokens (best) | 262,144 tokens (best) | 204,800 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens | 65,536 tokens | 131,072 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | No | No |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | Yes | No | No |
| Video | Yes | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Proprietary | Open |
| API model ID | qwen3.6-27b | qwen3.6-max-preview | glm-5 |
| API providers | 27 (best) | 10 | 27 (best) |
| Released | Apr 22, 2026 | Apr 20, 2026 | Feb 12, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | Apr 2025 | — |
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
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview$28.60
- GLM-5$16.40
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Qwen3.6 27B, Qwen3.6 Max Preview or GLM-5?
Qwen3.6 27B is the better all-round choice, scoring 65/100 against GLM-5 (55) and Qwen3.6 Max Preview (54). It leads on price and inputs & features. Qwen3.6 Max Preview wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6 27B, Qwen3.6 Max Preview or GLM-5?
Qwen3.6 27B is cheaper at $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); 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 $1.35 per million tokens for Qwen3.6 27B versus $1.55 for GLM-5 (1.1× as much) and $2.92 for Qwen3.6 Max Preview (2.2× 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), Qwen3.6 27B 146.5 (#68 of 148) and GLM-5 145.8 (#74 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (147.6–152.0 vs 144.2–147.9), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — GLM-5 87.8%, Qwen3.6 Max Preview 87.4%, Qwen3.6 27B 85.9%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.6 27B 91.1%, Qwen3.6 Max Preview 91.1%, GLM-5 80.0%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3.6 27B 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 27B and Qwen3.6 Max Preview have the largest context windows (262,144 and 262,144 tokens), against 204,800 for GLM-5. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.6 27B up to 65,536, Qwen3.6 Max Preview 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; Qwen3.6 Max Preview accepts text; GLM-5 accepts text. Qwen3.6 27B 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; Qwen3.6 Max Preview is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Qwen3.6 27B is the newest, released Apr 22, 2026. Qwen3.6 Max Preview came out Apr 20, 2026; GLM-5 came out Feb 12, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3.6 Max Preview Apr 2025.
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.
