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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Qwen3.6 Plus vs Gemini 2.5 Flash

Too close to call on our weighted score (Gemini 2.5 Flash 66, Qwen3.6 Plus 66). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. 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. Google

    Gemini 2.5 Flash

    Released Jun 17, 2025

    66/100
    • ECI140.6
    • Price$0.30 / $2.50
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove Gemini 2.5 Flash

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Gemini 2.5 Flash 66/100, Qwen3.6 Plus 66/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.6 Plus for raw capability, Gemini 2.5 Flash on price and Gemini 2.5 Flash for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3.6 PlusCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.6 Plus 147.8 · Gemini 2.5 Flash 140.6
  • Lowest priceGemini 2.5 FlashGemini 2.5 Flash $0.85 · Qwen3.6 Plus $1.13 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGemini 2.5 FlashGemini 2.5 Flash 1,048,576 · Qwen3.6 Plus 1,000,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsGemini 2.5 FlashQwen3.6 Plus: Text, Images, Video · Gemini 2.5 Flash: Text, Images, PDFs, Audio, Video
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3.6 PlusGemini 2.5 Flash
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%7465
Price25%4551
Inputs & features15%80100
Context window10%6061
Overall100%66/10066/100
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 Gemini 2.5 Flash specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.6 PlusAlibaba (Qwen)Gemini 2.5 FlashGoogle
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)147.8 (best)140.6
ECI rank#69 of 165 (best)#110 of 165
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions88.4%—
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics38.3%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics93.3%—
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues57.9%—
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions44.1%—
Price per million tokens
Input$0.50$0.30 (best)
Output$3.00$2.50 (best)
Cached input$0.05$0.03 (best)
Blended (3:1)$1.13$0.85 (best)
Long-context rateOver 256K: $2.00 / $6.00Same rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Google API
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)
Max output65,536 tokens65,536 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsNoYes
AudioNoYes
VideoYesYes
ReasoningYesYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
API model IDqwen3.6-plusgemini-2.5-flash
API providers2232 (best)
ReleasedApr 2, 2026Jun 17, 2025
Knowledge cutoffApr 2025Jan 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
  • Gemini 2.5 Flash$8.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3.6 Plus or Gemini 2.5 Flash?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Gemini 2.5 Flash 66/100, Qwen3.6 Plus 66/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.6 Plus for raw capability, Gemini 2.5 Flash on price and Gemini 2.5 Flash for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6 Plus or Gemini 2.5 Flash?

Gemini 2.5 Flash is cheaper at $0.30 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (official Google API price). 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 $0.85 per million tokens for Gemini 2.5 Flash versus $1.13 for Qwen3.6 Plus (1.3× 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 Gemini 2.5 Flash 140.6 (#110 of 165). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (145.8–149.6 vs 138.4–142.1), so the gap is a real one.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Gemini 2.5 Flash 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?

Gemini 2.5 Flash has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 1,000,000 for Qwen3.6 Plus. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.6 Plus up to 65,536, Gemini 2.5 Flash up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3.6 Plus accepts text, images and video; Gemini 2.5 Flash accepts text, images, PDFs, audio and video. Gemini 2.5 Flash handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

No. Qwen3.6 Plus and Gemini 2.5 Flash are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.6 Plus is the newest, released Apr 2, 2026. Gemini 2.5 Flash came out Jun 17, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3.6 Plus Apr 2025, Gemini 2.5 Flash Jan 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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