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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3.6 27B vs Qwen3.6 Max Preview

Qwen3.6 27B comes out ahead, 65 to 54 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Our pick

    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. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.6 Max Preview

    Released Apr 20, 2026

    54/100
    • ECI149.2
    • Price$1.30 / $7.80
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.6 Max Preview

  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 65/100 against 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
  • Lowest priceQwen3.6 27BQwen3.6 27B $1.35 · Qwen3.6 Max Preview $2.92 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextAbout the sameQwen3.6 27B 262,144 · Qwen3.6 Max Preview 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.6 27BQwen3.6 27B: Text, Images, Audio, Video · Qwen3.6 Max Preview: Text
  • Self-hostingQwen3.6 27BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3.6 27BQwen3.6 Max Preview
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%7477
Price25%4428
Inputs & features15%9035
Context window10%3737
Overall100%65/10054/100
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 Qwen3.6 Max Preview specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.6 27BAlibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.6 Max PreviewAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)146.5149.2 (best)
ECI rank#68 of 148#54 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions85.9%87.4% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics35.1%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics91.1%91.1%
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues—76.7%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—52.0%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.60 (best)$1.30
Output$3.60 (best)$7.80
Cached input—$0.13
Blended (3:1)$1.35 (best)$2.92
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens262,144 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens65,536 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesNo
PDFsNoNo
AudioYesNo
VideoYesNo
ReasoningYesYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietary
API model IDqwen3.6-27bqwen3.6-max-preview
API providers27 (best)10
ReleasedApr 22, 2026Apr 20, 2026
Knowledge cutoff—Apr 2025
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
  • Qwen3.6 Max Preview$28.60
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3.6 27B or Qwen3.6 Max Preview?

Qwen3.6 27B is the better all-round choice, scoring 65/100 against 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 or Qwen3.6 Max Preview?

Qwen3.6 27B is cheaper at $0.60 input / $3.60 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 $1.35 per million tokens for Qwen3.6 27B versus $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) and Qwen3.6 27B 146.5 (#68 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 — 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%.

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. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3.6 27B and Qwen3.6 Max Preview share the same 262,144-token context window. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.6 27B up to 65,536, Qwen3.6 Max Preview up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3.6 27B accepts text, images, audio and video; Qwen3.6 Max Preview accepts text. 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; 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. 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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