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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3.6 27B vs Qwen3.7 Max

Qwen3.6 27B comes out ahead, 65 to 58 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)

    Qwen3.7 Max

    Released May 21, 2026

    58/100
    • ECI153.7
    • Price$2.50 / $7.50
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.7 Max

  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 Qwen3.7 Max (58). It leads on price and inputs & features. Qwen3.7 Max wins on capability and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3.7 MaxCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.7 Max 153.7 · Qwen3.6 27B 146.5
  • Lowest priceQwen3.6 27BQwen3.6 27B $1.35 · Qwen3.7 Max $3.75 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3.7 MaxQwen3.7 Max 1,000,000 · Qwen3.6 27B 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.6 27BQwen3.6 27B: Text, Images, Audio, Video · Qwen3.7 Max: Text
  • Self-hostingQwen3.6 27BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3.6 27BQwen3.7 Max
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%7483
Price25%4423
Inputs & features15%9035
Context window10%3760
Overall100%65/10058/100
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 Qwen3.7 Max specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.6 27BAlibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.7 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)146.5153.7 (best)
ECI rank#68 of 148#37 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions85.9%90.9% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics35.1%64.6% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics91.1%95.6% (best)
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues—77.3%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—55.8%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.60 (best)$2.50
Output$3.60 (best)$7.50
Cached input—$0.50
Blended (3:1)$1.35 (best)$3.75
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens1,000,000 tokens (best)
Max output65,536 tokens65,536 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesNo
PDFsNoNo
AudioYesNo
VideoYesNo
ReasoningYesYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietary
API model IDqwen3.6-27bqwen3.7-max
API providers27 (best)26
ReleasedApr 22, 2026May 21, 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.

  • Qwen3.6 27B$13.20
  • Qwen3.7 Max$40.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3.6 27B or Qwen3.7 Max?

Qwen3.6 27B is the better all-round choice, scoring 65/100 against Qwen3.7 Max (58). It leads on price and inputs & features. Qwen3.7 Max wins on capability and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6 27B or Qwen3.7 Max?

Qwen3.6 27B is cheaper at $0.60 input / $3.60 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Qwen3.7 Max costs $2.50 input / $7.50 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 $3.75 for Qwen3.7 Max (2.8× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3.7 Max scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.7 Max 153.7 (#37 of 148) and Qwen3.6 27B 146.5 (#68 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (151.9–156.0 vs 144.2–147.9), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3.7 Max 90.9%, Qwen3.6 27B 85.9%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Qwen3.7 Max 64.6%, Qwen3.6 27B 35.1%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.7 Max 95.6%, Qwen3.6 27B 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, Qwen3.7 Max 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?

Qwen3.7 Max has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3.6 27B. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.6 27B up to 65,536, Qwen3.7 Max up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3.6 27B accepts text, images, audio and video; Qwen3.7 Max 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; Qwen3.7 Max is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.7 Max is the newest, released May 21, 2026. Qwen3.6 27B came out Apr 22, 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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