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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Qwen3.6 Plus vs DeepSeek R1 0528

Qwen3.6 Plus comes out ahead, 66 to 53 on our weighted score, though DeepSeek R1 0528 is 17% cheaper per token.

  1. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.6 Plus

    Released Apr 2, 2026

    66/100
    • ECI147.8
    • Price$0.50 / $3.00
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.6 Plus

  2. DeepSeek

    DeepSeek R1 0528

    Released May 28, 2025

    53/100
    • ECI141.2
    • Price$0.512 / $2.19
    • Context164K
    Full specs Remove DeepSeek R1 0528

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Qwen3.6 Plus is our pick

Qwen3.6 Plus is the better all-round choice, scoring 66/100 against DeepSeek R1 0528 (53). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. DeepSeek R1 0528 wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3.6 PlusCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.6 Plus 147.8 · DeepSeek R1 0528 141.2
  • Lowest priceDeepSeek R1 0528DeepSeek R1 0528 $0.932 · Qwen3.6 Plus $1.13 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3.6 PlusQwen3.6 Plus 1,000,000 · DeepSeek R1 0528 163,840 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.6 PlusQwen3.6 Plus: Text, Images, Video · DeepSeek R1 0528: Text
  • Self-hostingDeepSeek R1 0528Publishes downloadable weights (MIT)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3.6 PlusDeepSeek R1 0528
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%7466
Price25%4549
Inputs & features15%8035
Context window10%6028
Overall100%66/10053/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3.6 Plus vs DeepSeek R1 0528 specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.6 PlusAlibaba (Qwen)DeepSeek R1 0528DeepSeek
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)147.8 (best)141.2
ECI rank#69 of 165 (best)#108 of 165
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions88.4% (best)76.3%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics38.3%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics93.3% (best)66.4%
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues57.9%—
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions44.1%—
Price per million tokens
Input$0.50 (best)$0.512
Output$3.00$2.19 (best)
Cached input$0.05—
Blended (3:1)$1.13$0.932 (best)
Long-context rateOver 256K: $2.00 / $6.00Same rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIMedian of 16 providers
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens (best)163,840 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens (best)32,768 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesNo
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoYesNo
ReasoningYesYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpenMIT
API model IDqwen3.6-plus—
API providers22 (best)16
ReleasedApr 2, 2026May 28, 2025
Knowledge cutoffApr 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 Plus$11.00
  • DeepSeek R1 0528$9.50
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3.6 Plus or DeepSeek R1 0528?

Qwen3.6 Plus is the better all-round choice, scoring 66/100 against DeepSeek R1 0528 (53). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. DeepSeek R1 0528 wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6 Plus or DeepSeek R1 0528?

DeepSeek R1 0528 is cheaper at $0.512 input / $2.19 output per million tokens (median across 16 API providers). Qwen3.6 Plus costs $0.50 input / $3.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.932 per million tokens for DeepSeek R1 0528 versus $1.13 for Qwen3.6 Plus (1.2× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3.6 Plus scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.6 Plus 147.8 (#69 of 165) and DeepSeek R1 0528 141.2 (#108 of 165). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (145.8–149.6 vs 139.0–142.9), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3.6 Plus 88.4%, DeepSeek R1 0528 76.3%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.6 Plus 93.3%, DeepSeek R1 0528 66.4%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for DeepSeek R1 0528 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3.6 Plus 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 Plus has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 163,840 for DeepSeek R1 0528. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.6 Plus up to 65,536, DeepSeek R1 0528 up to 32,768 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3.6 Plus accepts text, images and video; DeepSeek R1 0528 accepts text. Qwen3.6 Plus handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

DeepSeek R1 0528 publishes its weights (MIT) and can be self-hosted; Qwen3.6 Plus is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.6 Plus is the newest, released Apr 2, 2026. DeepSeek R1 0528 came out May 28, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: 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 Nov 2, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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