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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3.7 Max vs Qwen3.6 27B

Qwen3.6 27B comes out ahead, 65 to 58 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.7 Max

    Released May 21, 2026

    58/100
    • ECI153.7
    • Price$2.50 / $7.50
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.7 Max
  2. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.6 27B

    Released Apr 22, 2026

    65/100
    • ECI146.5
    • Price$0.60 / $3.60
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.6 27B

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Qwen3.6 27B is our pick

Qwen3.6 27B is the better all-round choice, scoring 65/100 against Qwen3.7 Max (58). It leads on price and inputs & features. Qwen3.7 Max wins on capability and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3.7 MaxCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.7 Max 153.7 · Qwen3.6 27B 146.5
  • Lowest priceQwen3.6 27BQwen3.6 27B $1.35 · Qwen3.7 Max $3.75 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3.7 MaxQwen3.7 Max 1,000,000 · Qwen3.6 27B 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.6 27BQwen3.7 Max: Text · Qwen3.6 27B: Text, Images, Audio, Video
  • Self-hostingQwen3.6 27BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3.7 MaxQwen3.6 27B
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%8374
Price25%2344
Inputs & features15%3590
Context window10%6037
Overall100%58/10065/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3.7 Max vs Qwen3.6 27B specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.7 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.6 27BAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)153.7 (best)146.5
ECI rank#37 of 148 (best)#68 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions90.9% (best)85.9%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics64.6% (best)35.1%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics95.6% (best)91.1%
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues77.3%—
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions55.8%—
Price per million tokens
Input$2.50$0.60 (best)
Output$7.50$3.60 (best)
Cached input$0.50—
Blended (3:1)$3.75$1.35 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens (best)262,144 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens65,536 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoYes
VideoNoYes
ReasoningYesYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpen
API model IDqwen3.7-maxqwen3.6-27b
API providers2627 (best)
ReleasedMay 21, 2026Apr 22, 2026
Knowledge cutoff——
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.

  • Qwen3.7 Max$40.00
  • Qwen3.6 27B$13.20
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3.7 Max or Qwen3.6 27B?

Qwen3.6 27B is the better all-round choice, scoring 65/100 against Qwen3.7 Max (58). It leads on price and inputs & features. Qwen3.7 Max wins on capability and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.7 Max or Qwen3.6 27B?

Qwen3.6 27B is cheaper at $0.60 input / $3.60 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Qwen3.7 Max costs $2.50 input / $7.50 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $1.35 per million tokens for Qwen3.6 27B versus $3.75 for Qwen3.7 Max (2.8× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3.7 Max scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.7 Max 153.7 (#37 of 148) and Qwen3.6 27B 146.5 (#68 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (151.9–156.0 vs 144.2–147.9), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3.7 Max 90.9%, Qwen3.6 27B 85.9%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Qwen3.7 Max 64.6%, Qwen3.6 27B 35.1%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.7 Max 95.6%, Qwen3.6 27B 91.1%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3.6 27B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3.7 Max 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?

Qwen3.7 Max has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3.6 27B. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.7 Max up to 65,536, Qwen3.6 27B up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3.7 Max accepts text; Qwen3.6 27B accepts text, images, audio and video. Qwen3.6 27B handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3.6 27B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Qwen3.7 Max is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.7 Max is the newest, released May 21, 2026. Qwen3.6 27B came out Apr 22, 2026.

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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