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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3.6 Max Preview vs Qwen3 235B-A22B

Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen3.6 Max Preview 54, Qwen3 235B-A22B 51). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. 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

  2. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 235B-A22B

    Released Apr 28, 2025

    51/100
    • ECI139.4
    • Price$0.70 / $2.80
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 235B-A22B

  3. Add a model

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01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Qwen3.6 Max Preview 54/100, Qwen3 235B-A22B 51/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.6 Max Preview for raw capability and Qwen3 235B-A22B on price. 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 235B-A22B 139.4
  • Lowest priceQwen3 235B-A22BQwen3 235B-A22B $1.23 · Qwen3.6 Max Preview $2.92 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3.6 Max PreviewQwen3.6 Max Preview 262,144 · Qwen3 235B-A22B 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsQwen3.6 Max Preview: Text · Qwen3 235B-A22B: Text
  • Self-hostingQwen3 235B-A22BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3.6 Max PreviewQwen3 235B-A22B
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%7765
Price25%2846
Inputs & features15%3535
Context window10%3724
Overall100%54/10051/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3.6 Max Preview vs Qwen3 235B-A22B specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.6 Max PreviewAlibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 235B-A22BAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)149.2 (best)139.4
ECI rank#54 of 148 (best)#103 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions87.4% (best)70.7%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics91.1%—
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues76.7%—
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions52.0%—
Price per million tokens
Input$1.30$0.70 (best)
Output$7.80$2.80 (best)
Cached input$0.13—
Blended (3:1)$2.92$1.23 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens (best)131,072 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens (best)16,384 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoNo
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningYesYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpen
API model IDqwen3.6-max-previewqwen3-235b-a22b
API providers10 (best)7
ReleasedApr 20, 2026Apr 28, 2025
Knowledge cutoffApr 2025Apr 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 Max Preview$28.60
  • Qwen3 235B-A22B$12.60
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3.6 Max Preview or Qwen3 235B-A22B?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Qwen3.6 Max Preview 54/100, Qwen3 235B-A22B 51/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.6 Max Preview for raw capability and Qwen3 235B-A22B on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6 Max Preview or Qwen3 235B-A22B?

Qwen3 235B-A22B is cheaper at $0.70 input / $2.80 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 $1.23 per million tokens for Qwen3 235B-A22B versus $2.92 for Qwen3.6 Max Preview (2.4× 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 235B-A22B 139.4 (#103 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (147.6–152.0 vs 135.2–140.8), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3.6 Max Preview 87.4%, Qwen3 235B-A22B 70.7%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 235B-A22B 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 Max Preview has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 131,072 for Qwen3 235B-A22B. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.6 Max Preview up to 65,536, Qwen3 235B-A22B up to 16,384 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3.6 Max Preview accepts text; Qwen3 235B-A22B accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3 235B-A22B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Qwen3.6 Max Preview is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.6 Max Preview is the newest, released Apr 20, 2026. Qwen3 235B-A22B came out Apr 28, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3.6 Max Preview Apr 2025, Qwen3 235B-A22B 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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