ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3.6 Max Preview vs Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs GLM-5.1

Claude Sonnet 4.6 comes out ahead, 62 to 57 and 54 on our weighted score, though GLM-5.1 is 2.8× cheaper per token.

  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

    Anthropic

    Claude Sonnet 4.6

    Released Feb 17, 2026

    62/100
    • ECI152.3
    • Price$3.00 / $15.00
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Claude Sonnet 4.6

  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

Claude Sonnet 4.6 is our pick

Claude Sonnet 4.6 is the better all-round choice, scoring 62/100 against GLM-5.1 (57) and Qwen3.6 Max Preview (54). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. GLM-5.1 wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityClaude Sonnet 4.6Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 4.6 152.3 · GLM-5.1 149.9 · Qwen3.6 Max Preview 149.2
  • Lowest priceGLM-5.1GLM-5.1 $2.15 · Qwen3.6 Max Preview $2.92 · Claude Sonnet 4.6 $6.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextClaude Sonnet 4.6Claude Sonnet 4.6 1,000,000 · Qwen3.6 Max Preview 262,144 · GLM-5.1 200,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsClaude Sonnet 4.6Qwen3.6 Max Preview: Text · Claude Sonnet 4.6: Text, Images, PDFs · GLM-5.1: Text
  • Self-hostingGLM-5.1Publishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3.6 Max PreviewClaude Sonnet 4.6GLM-5.1
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%778178
Price25%281334
Inputs & features15%358045
Context window10%376032
Overall100%54/10062/10057/100
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 Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs GLM-5.1 specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.6 Max PreviewAlibaba (Qwen)Claude Sonnet 4.6AnthropicGLM-5.1Z.ai (Zhipu)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)149.2152.3 (best)149.9
ECI rank#54 of 148#40 of 148 (best)#51 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions87.4%87.4%89.9% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics——36.8%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics91.1%85.8%93.3% (best)
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues76.7% (best)75.2%74.2%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions52.0% (best)35.5%34.0%
Price per million tokens
Input$1.30 (best)$3.00$1.40
Output$7.80$15.00$4.40 (best)
Cached input$0.13 (best)$0.30$0.26
Blended (3:1)$2.92$6.00$2.15 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Anthropic APIOfficial Z.AI API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens1,000,000 tokens (best)200,000 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens64,000 tokens131,072 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoYesNo
PDFsNoYesNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningYesYeslow · medium · high · maxYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoYesYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietaryOpen
API model IDqwen3.6-max-previewclaude-sonnet-4-6glm-5.1
API providers1041 (best)40
ReleasedApr 20, 2026Feb 17, 2026Apr 7, 2026
Knowledge cutoffApr 2025Aug 31, 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
  • Claude Sonnet 4.6$60.00
  • GLM-5.1$22.80
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3.6 Max Preview, Claude Sonnet 4.6 or GLM-5.1?

Claude Sonnet 4.6 is the better all-round choice, scoring 62/100 against GLM-5.1 (57) and Qwen3.6 Max Preview (54). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. GLM-5.1 wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6 Max Preview, Claude Sonnet 4.6 or GLM-5.1?

GLM-5.1 is cheaper at $1.40 input / $4.40 output per million tokens (official Z.AI API price). Qwen3.6 Max Preview costs $1.30 input / $7.80 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price); Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs $3.00 input / $15.00 output per million tokens (official Anthropic 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 $2.92 for Qwen3.6 Max Preview (1.4× as much) and $6.00 for Claude Sonnet 4.6 (2.8× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Claude Sonnet 4.6 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 4.6 152.3 (#40 of 148), GLM-5.1 149.9 (#51 of 148) and Qwen3.6 Max Preview 149.2 (#54 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (149.6–154.7 vs 148.0–151.6), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — GLM-5.1 89.9%, Qwen3.6 Max Preview 87.4%, Claude Sonnet 4.6 87.4%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — GLM-5.1 93.3%, Qwen3.6 Max Preview 91.1%, Claude Sonnet 4.6 85.8%; SWE-bench Verified — Qwen3.6 Max Preview 76.7%, Claude Sonnet 4.6 75.2%, GLM-5.1 74.2%; SimpleQA Verified — Qwen3.6 Max Preview 52.0%, Claude Sonnet 4.6 35.5%, 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%, Claude Sonnet 4.6 75.2% and GLM-5.1 74.2%. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Claude Sonnet 4.6 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, Claude Sonnet 4.6 up to 64,000, GLM-5.1 up to 131,072 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3.6 Max Preview accepts text; Claude Sonnet 4.6 accepts text, images and PDFs; GLM-5.1 accepts text. Claude Sonnet 4.6 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 Claude Sonnet 4.6 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.6 Max Preview is the newest, released Apr 20, 2026. GLM-5.1 came out Apr 7, 2026; Claude Sonnet 4.6 came out Feb 17, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3.6 Max Preview Apr 2025, Claude Sonnet 4.6 Aug 31, 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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