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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3.6 Flash vs Gemma 4 31B IT

Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen3.6 Flash 70, Gemma 4 31B IT 69). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.6 Flash

    Released Apr 27, 2026

    70/100
    • ECI143.3
    • Price$0.188 / $1.13
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.6 Flash

  2. Google

    Gemma 4 31B IT

    Released Apr 2, 2026

    69/100
    • ECI142.8
    • Price$0.14 / $0.40
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Gemma 4 31B IT

  3. Add a model

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01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Qwen3.6 Flash 70/100, Gemma 4 31B IT 69/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.6 Flash for raw capability and Gemma 4 31B IT on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3.6 FlashCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.6 Flash 143.3 · Gemma 4 31B IT 142.8
  • Lowest priceGemma 4 31B ITGemma 4 31B IT $0.205 · Qwen3.6 Flash $0.422 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3.6 FlashQwen3.6 Flash 1,000,000 · Gemma 4 31B IT 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.6 FlashQwen3.6 Flash: Text, Images, Video · Gemma 4 31B IT: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingGemma 4 31B ITPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3.6 FlashGemma 4 31B IT
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%7069
Price25%6883
Inputs & features15%8070
Context window10%6037
Overall100%70/10069/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3.6 Flash vs Gemma 4 31B IT specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.6 FlashAlibaba (Qwen)Gemma 4 31B ITGoogle
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)143.3 (best)142.8
ECI rank#85 of 148 (best)#86 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions83.3% (best)75.8%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics22.5%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics84.4% (best)73.3%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions15.9% (best)10.4%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.188$0.14 (best)
Output$1.13$0.40 (best)
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$0.422$0.205 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIMedian of 30 providers
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens (best)262,144 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens (best)32,768 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoYesNo
ReasoningYesYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpen
API model IDqwen3.6-flashgemma-4-31b-it
API providers1638 (best)
ReleasedApr 27, 2026Apr 2, 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 Flash$4.13
  • Gemma 4 31B IT$2.20
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3.6 Flash or Gemma 4 31B IT?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Qwen3.6 Flash 70/100, Gemma 4 31B IT 69/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.6 Flash for raw capability and Gemma 4 31B IT on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6 Flash or Gemma 4 31B IT?

Gemma 4 31B IT is cheaper at $0.14 input / $0.40 output per million tokens (median across 30 API providers). Qwen3.6 Flash costs $0.188 input / $1.13 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.205 per million tokens for Gemma 4 31B IT versus $0.422 for Qwen3.6 Flash (2.1× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3.6 Flash scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.6 Flash 143.3 (#85 of 148) and Gemma 4 31B IT 142.8 (#86 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (140.9–144.7 vs 140.3–144.9), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3.6 Flash 83.3%, Gemma 4 31B IT 75.8%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.6 Flash 84.4%, Gemma 4 31B IT 73.3%; SimpleQA Verified — Qwen3.6 Flash 15.9%, Gemma 4 31B IT 10.4%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3.6 Flash and Gemma 4 31B IT yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3.6 Flash 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 Flash has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Gemma 4 31B IT. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.6 Flash up to 65,536, Gemma 4 31B IT up to 32,768 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3.6 Flash accepts text, images and video; Gemma 4 31B IT accepts text and images. Qwen3.6 Flash handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Gemma 4 31B IT publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Qwen3.6 Flash is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.6 Flash is the newest, released Apr 27, 2026. Gemma 4 31B IT came out Apr 2, 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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