ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3.7 Plus vs Qwen3.6 27B vs MiniMax-M3

Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen3.7 Plus 70, MiniMax-M3 69, Qwen3.6 27B 65). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.7 Plus

    Released Jun 2, 2026

    70/100
    • ECI147.4
    • Price$0.40 / $1.60
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.7 Plus

  2. 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. MiniMax

    MiniMax-M3

    Released Jun 1, 2026

    69/100
    • ECI147.0
    • Price$0.30 / $1.20
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove MiniMax-M3
01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Qwen3.7 Plus 70/100, MiniMax-M3 69/100, Qwen3.6 27B 65/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.7 Plus for raw capability, MiniMax-M3 on price and MiniMax-M3 for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3.7 PlusCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.7 Plus 147.4 · MiniMax-M3 147.0 · Qwen3.6 27B 146.5
  • Lowest priceMiniMax-M3MiniMax-M3 $0.525 · Qwen3.7 Plus $0.70 · Qwen3.6 27B $1.35 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextMiniMax-M3MiniMax-M3 1,048,576 · Qwen3.7 Plus 1,000,000 · Qwen3.6 27B 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.6 27BQwen3.7 Plus: Text, Images, Video · Qwen3.6 27B: Text, Images, Audio, Video · MiniMax-M3: Text, Images, Video
  • Self-hostingQwen3.6 27B and MiniMax-M3Publishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3.7 PlusQwen3.6 27BMiniMax-M3
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%757474
Price25%574463
Inputs & features15%809070
Context window10%603761
Overall100%70/10065/10069/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3.7 Plus vs Qwen3.6 27B vs MiniMax-M3 specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.7 PlusAlibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.6 27BAlibaba (Qwen)MiniMax-M3MiniMax
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)147.4 (best)146.5147.0
ECI rank#61 of 148 (best)#68 of 148#62 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions87.9%85.9%90.9% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics34.4%35.1% (best)—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics93.3% (best)91.1%71.1%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.40$0.60$0.30 (best)
Output$1.60$3.60$1.20 (best)
Cached input$0.04 (best)—$0.06
Blended (3:1)$0.70$1.35$0.525 (best)
Long-context rateOver 256K: $1.20 / $4.80Same rateOver 512K: $0.60 / $2.40
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial MiniMax (minimax.io) API
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens262,144 tokens1,048,576 tokens (best)
Max output64,000 tokens65,536 tokens512,000 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesYes
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoYesNo
VideoYesYesYes
ReasoningYesYesYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesYesNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpenOpen
API model IDqwen3.7-plusqwen3.6-27bMiniMax-M3
API providers252742 (best)
ReleasedJun 2, 2026Apr 22, 2026Jun 1, 2026
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.

  • Qwen3.7 Plus$7.20
  • Qwen3.6 27B$13.20
  • MiniMax-M3$5.40
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3.7 Plus, Qwen3.6 27B or MiniMax-M3?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Qwen3.7 Plus 70/100, MiniMax-M3 69/100, Qwen3.6 27B 65/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.7 Plus for raw capability, MiniMax-M3 on price and MiniMax-M3 for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.7 Plus, Qwen3.6 27B or MiniMax-M3?

MiniMax-M3 is cheaper at $0.30 input / $1.20 output per million tokens (official MiniMax (minimax.io) API price). Qwen3.7 Plus costs $0.40 input / $1.60 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price); Qwen3.6 27B costs $0.60 input / $3.60 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.525 per million tokens for MiniMax-M3 versus $0.70 for Qwen3.7 Plus (1.3× as much) and $1.35 for Qwen3.6 27B (2.6× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3.7 Plus scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.7 Plus 147.4 (#61 of 148), MiniMax-M3 147.0 (#62 of 148) and Qwen3.6 27B 146.5 (#68 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (145.7–148.9 vs 142.7–149.8), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — MiniMax-M3 90.9%, Qwen3.7 Plus 87.9%, Qwen3.6 27B 85.9%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.7 Plus 93.3%, Qwen3.6 27B 91.1%, MiniMax-M3 71.1%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3.7 Plus, Qwen3.6 27B and MiniMax-M3 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3.7 Plus 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?

MiniMax-M3 has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 1,000,000 for Qwen3.7 Plus and 262,144 for Qwen3.6 27B. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.7 Plus up to 64,000, Qwen3.6 27B up to 65,536, MiniMax-M3 up to 512,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3.7 Plus accepts text, images and video; Qwen3.6 27B accepts text, images, audio and video; MiniMax-M3 accepts text, images and video. Qwen3.6 27B handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3.6 27B and MiniMax-M3 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Qwen3.7 Plus is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.7 Plus is the newest, released Jun 2, 2026. MiniMax-M3 came out Jun 1, 2026; Qwen3.6 27B came out Apr 22, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3.7 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 Oct 4, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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