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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B vs Qwen3.6 Plus

Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 68, Qwen3.6 Plus 66). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.6 35B-A3B

    Released Apr 17, 2026

    68/100
    • ECI143.9
    • Price$0.248 / $1.49
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.6 35B-A3B

  2. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.6 Plus

    Released Apr 2, 2026

    66/100
    • ECI147.6
    • Price$0.50 / $3.00
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.6 Plus

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 68/100, Qwen3.6 Plus 66/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.6 Plus for raw capability and Qwen3.6 35B-A3B on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3.6 PlusCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.6 Plus 147.6 · Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 143.9
  • Lowest priceQwen3.6 35B-A3BQwen3.6 35B-A3B $0.557 · Qwen3.6 Plus $1.13 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3.6 PlusQwen3.6 Plus 1,000,000 · Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.6 35B-A3BQwen3.6 35B-A3B: Text, Images, Audio, Video · Qwen3.6 Plus: Text, Images, Video
  • Self-hostingQwen3.6 35B-A3BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3.6 35B-A3BQwen3.6 Plus
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%7075
Price25%6247
Inputs & features15%9070
Context window10%3760
Overall100%68/10066/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B vs Qwen3.6 Plus specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.6 35B-A3BAlibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.6 PlusAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)143.9147.6 (best)
ECI rank#83 of 148#59 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions84.9%88.4% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics20.4%38.3% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics86.7%93.3% (best)
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues—57.9%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—44.1%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.248 (best)$0.50
Output$1.49 (best)$3.00
Cached input—$0.05
Blended (3:1)$0.557 (best)$1.13
Long-context rateSame rateOver 256K: $2.00 / $6.00
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
ImagesYesYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioYesNo
VideoYesYes
ReasoningYesYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietary
API model IDqwen3.6-35b-a3bqwen3.6-plus
API providers34 (best)18
ReleasedApr 17, 2026Apr 2, 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 35B-A3B$5.45
  • Qwen3.6 Plus$11.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3.6 35B-A3B or Qwen3.6 Plus?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 68/100, Qwen3.6 Plus 66/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.6 Plus for raw capability and Qwen3.6 35B-A3B on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B or Qwen3.6 Plus?

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B is cheaper at $0.248 input / $1.49 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Qwen3.6 Plus costs $0.50 input / $3.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.557 per million tokens for Qwen3.6 35B-A3B versus $1.13 for Qwen3.6 Plus (2× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3.6 Plus scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.6 Plus 147.6 (#59 of 148) and Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 143.9 (#83 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (145.4–149.3 vs 141.2–146.0), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3.6 Plus 88.4%, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 84.9%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Qwen3.6 Plus 38.3%, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 20.4%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.6 Plus 93.3%, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 86.7%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3.6 35B-A3B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3.6 Plus 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 Plus has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3.6 35B-A3B. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.6 35B-A3B up to 65,536, Qwen3.6 Plus up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B accepts text, images, audio and video; Qwen3.6 Plus accepts text, images and video. Qwen3.6 35B-A3B handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Qwen3.6 Plus is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B is the newest, released Apr 17, 2026. Qwen3.6 Plus came out Apr 2, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3.6 Plus 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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