ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

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

GLM-5.1 comes out ahead, 57 to 54 and 50 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. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 Max

    Released Sep 23, 2025

    50/100
    • ECI142.4
    • Price$1.20 / $6.00
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 Max
  3. Our pick

    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

GLM-5.1 is our pick

GLM-5.1 is the better all-round choice, scoring 57/100 against Qwen3.6 Max Preview (54) and Qwen3 Max (50). It leads on price and inputs & features. 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 Max 142.4
  • Lowest priceGLM-5.1GLM-5.1 $2.15 · Qwen3 Max $2.40 · Qwen3.6 Max Preview $2.92 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3.6 Max Preview and Qwen3 MaxQwen3.6 Max Preview 262,144 · Qwen3 Max 262,144 · GLM-5.1 200,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsQwen3.6 Max Preview: Text · Qwen3 Max: Text · GLM-5.1: Text
  • Self-hostingGLM-5.1Publishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3.6 Max PreviewQwen3 MaxGLM-5.1
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%776878
Price25%283234
Inputs & features15%352545
Context window10%373732
Overall100%54/10050/10057/100
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 Max vs GLM-5.1 specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.6 Max PreviewAlibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)GLM-5.1Z.ai (Zhipu)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)149.2142.4149.9 (best)
ECI rank#54 of 148#91 of 148#51 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions87.4%72.6%89.9% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—19.0%36.8% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics91.1%73.3%93.3% (best)
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues76.7% (best)—74.2%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions52.0% (best)48.8%34.0%
Price per million tokens
Input$1.30$1.20 (best)$1.40
Output$7.80$6.00$4.40 (best)
Cached input$0.13 (best)—$0.26
Blended (3:1)$2.92$2.40$2.15 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Z.AI API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens (best)262,144 tokens (best)200,000 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens65,536 tokens131,072 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoNoNo
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningYesNoYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietaryOpen
API model IDqwen3.6-max-previewqwen3-maxglm-5.1
API providers101640 (best)
ReleasedApr 20, 2026Sep 23, 2025Apr 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 Max$24.00
  • GLM-5.1$22.80
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

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

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

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

GLM-5.1 is cheaper at $1.40 input / $4.40 output per million tokens (official Z.AI API price). Qwen3 Max costs $1.20 input / $6.00 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 $2.15 per million tokens for GLM-5.1 versus $2.40 for Qwen3 Max (1.1× as much) and $2.92 for Qwen3.6 Max Preview (1.4× 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 Max 142.4 (#91 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 Max Preview 87.4%, Qwen3 Max 72.6%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — GLM-5.1 93.3%, Qwen3.6 Max Preview 91.1%, Qwen3 Max 73.3%; SimpleQA Verified — Qwen3.6 Max Preview 52.0%, Qwen3 Max 48.8%, GLM-5.1 34.0%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 Max yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, GLM-5.1 leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3.6 Max Preview and Qwen3 Max have the largest context windows (262,144 and 262,144 tokens), against 200,000 for GLM-5.1. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.6 Max Preview up to 65,536, Qwen3 Max 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 Max accepts text; GLM-5.1 accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

GLM-5.1 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Qwen3.6 Max Preview and Qwen3 Max 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 Max came out Sep 23, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3.6 Max Preview Apr 2025, Qwen3 Max 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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