ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3.6 Max Preview vs Qwen3.6 Plus vs GLM-5.1

Qwen3.6 Plus comes out ahead, 66 to 57 and 54 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  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. Our pick

    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. Z.ai (Zhipu)

    GLM-5.1

    Released Apr 7, 2026

    57/100
    • ECI149.9
    • Price$1.40 / $4.40
    • Context200K
    Full specs Remove GLM-5.1
01 — Verdict

Qwen3.6 Plus is our pick

Qwen3.6 Plus is the better all-round choice, scoring 66/100 against GLM-5.1 (57) and Qwen3.6 Max Preview (54). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityGLM-5.1Capabilities Index (ECI): GLM-5.1 149.9 · Qwen3.6 Max Preview 149.2 · Qwen3.6 Plus 147.6
  • Lowest priceQwen3.6 PlusQwen3.6 Plus $1.13 · GLM-5.1 $2.15 · Qwen3.6 Max Preview $2.92 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3.6 PlusQwen3.6 Plus 1,000,000 · Qwen3.6 Max Preview 262,144 · GLM-5.1 200,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.6 PlusQwen3.6 Max Preview: Text · Qwen3.6 Plus: Text, Images, Video · GLM-5.1: Text
  • Self-hostingGLM-5.1Publishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3.6 Max PreviewQwen3.6 PlusGLM-5.1
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%777578
Price25%284734
Inputs & features15%357045
Context window10%376032
Overall100%54/10066/10057/100
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 Qwen3.6 Plus vs GLM-5.1 specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.6 Max PreviewAlibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.6 PlusAlibaba (Qwen)GLM-5.1Z.ai (Zhipu)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)149.2147.6149.9 (best)
ECI rank#54 of 148#59 of 148#51 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions87.4%88.4%89.9% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—38.3% (best)36.8%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics91.1%93.3% (best)93.3% (best)
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues76.7% (best)57.9%74.2%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions52.0% (best)44.1%34.0%
Price per million tokens
Input$1.30$0.50 (best)$1.40
Output$7.80$3.00 (best)$4.40
Cached input$0.13$0.05 (best)$0.26
Blended (3:1)$2.92$1.13 (best)$2.15
Long-context rateSame rateOver 256K: $2.00 / $6.00Same rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Z.AI API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens1,000,000 tokens (best)200,000 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens65,536 tokens131,072 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoYesNo
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoYesNo
ReasoningYesYesYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietaryOpen
API model IDqwen3.6-max-previewqwen3.6-plusglm-5.1
API providers101840 (best)
ReleasedApr 20, 2026Apr 2, 2026Apr 7, 2026
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
  • Qwen3.6 Plus$11.00
  • GLM-5.1$22.80
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3.6 Max Preview, Qwen3.6 Plus or GLM-5.1?

Qwen3.6 Plus is the better all-round choice, scoring 66/100 against GLM-5.1 (57) and Qwen3.6 Max Preview (54). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6 Max Preview, Qwen3.6 Plus or GLM-5.1?

Qwen3.6 Plus is cheaper at $0.50 input / $3.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). GLM-5.1 costs $1.40 input / $4.40 output per million tokens (official Z.AI 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 $1.13 per million tokens for Qwen3.6 Plus versus $2.15 for GLM-5.1 (1.9× as much) and $2.92 for Qwen3.6 Max Preview (2.6× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

GLM-5.1 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): GLM-5.1 149.9 (#51 of 148), Qwen3.6 Max Preview 149.2 (#54 of 148) and Qwen3.6 Plus 147.6 (#59 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (148.0–151.6 vs 147.6–152.0), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — GLM-5.1 89.9%, Qwen3.6 Plus 88.4%, Qwen3.6 Max Preview 87.4%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.6 Plus 93.3%, GLM-5.1 93.3%, Qwen3.6 Max Preview 91.1%; SWE-bench Verified — Qwen3.6 Max Preview 76.7%, GLM-5.1 74.2%, Qwen3.6 Plus 57.9%; SimpleQA Verified — Qwen3.6 Max Preview 52.0%, Qwen3.6 Plus 44.1%, GLM-5.1 34.0%.

Which is better for coding?

Qwen3.6 Max Preview resolves more real GitHub issues on SWE-bench Verified: Qwen3.6 Max Preview 76.7%, GLM-5.1 74.2% and Qwen3.6 Plus 57.9%. All three 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 Max Preview and 200,000 for GLM-5.1. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.6 Max Preview up to 65,536, Qwen3.6 Plus up to 65,536, GLM-5.1 up to 131,072 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3.6 Max Preview accepts text; Qwen3.6 Plus accepts text, images and video; GLM-5.1 accepts text. Qwen3.6 Plus handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

GLM-5.1 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Qwen3.6 Max Preview and Qwen3.6 Plus is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.6 Max Preview is the newest, released Apr 20, 2026. GLM-5.1 came out Apr 7, 2026; Qwen3.6 Plus came out Apr 2, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3.6 Max Preview Apr 2025, 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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