Compare / Qwen3.6 Max Preview vs Gemini 2.5 Pro

Qwen3.6 Max Preview vs Gemini 2.5 Pro

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 15 results on 3 sources that measured both models.

Qwen3.6 Max Preview
Alibaba · profile
Gemini 2.5 Pro
Google · profile
Results compared
15
Shared sources
3

Qwen3.6 Max Preview or Gemini 2.5 Pro? The short answer

  • Qwen3.6 Max Preview is cheaper: $2.31 against $3.44 per million tokens, 33% less.
  • Qwen3.6 Max Preview scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 28.4 against 16.1.
  • On our business benchmarks, Qwen3.6 Max Preview ranks higher for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge and writing.
  • On our business benchmarks, Gemini 2.5 Pro ranks higher for sticking to the facts.

At a glance

Qwen3.6 Max PreviewGemini 2.5 Pro
Price per million tokens$1.03 in · $6.16 out$1.25 in · $10.00 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$2.31$3.44
Cheapest host, blended–$1.72 (Google AI Studio)
Intelligence Index28.416.1
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second––
Context window262,144 tokens1,048,576 tokens
WeightsClosedClosed
Developer based inChinathe US

Prices are the developer's list price where we have read it, otherwise the typical host on OpenRouter; see every model's price. Intelligence and speed from Artificial Analysis.

Which is better for what

Each model's rank among models available today, for each kind of work, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. The better rank is in green.

Use caseQwen3.6 Max PreviewGemini 2.5 Pro
Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 78 of 161 109 of 161
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 56 of 195 92 of 195
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 37 of 187 42 of 187
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 45 of 153 38 of 153

Every shared result

BenchmarkMetricQwen3.6 Max PreviewGemini 2.5 Pro
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedOverallArena rating 1,4521,462
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedBusiness, management and financeArena rating 1,4501,437
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedCreative writingArena rating 1,4361,443
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedExpert promptsArena rating 1,4991,458
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedInstruction followingArena rating 1,4491,438
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedOverallArena rating 1,4601,446
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedWriting, literature and languageArena rating 1,4461,445
Artificial AnalysisreportedArtificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score 28.416.1
Artificial AnalysisreportedGPQA Diamond% of questions 88.8%84.4%
Artificial AnalysisreportedHumanity's Last Exam% of questions 30.8%22.5%
Artificial AnalysisreportedIFBench% of instructions 76.6%48.7%
Artificial AnalysisreportedLong-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions 80.7%69.0%
Artificial AnalysisreportedTerminal-Bench Hard% of tasks 43.9%26.5%
Artificial AnalysisreportedΤ²-bench telecom% of tasks 95.9%54.1%
Vending-Bench 2reportedMoney after a yearUS dollars $4,254.19$573.64

Bold green marks the better value on that metric. Where a source reports ranges that overlap, the difference may not be meaningful; see the benchmark page for ranges.

Quick answers

Is Qwen3.6 Max Preview better than Gemini 2.5 Pro?

It depends on the task. Among models available today, on our benchmarks and licensed sources, Qwen3.6 Max Preview ranks higher for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge and writing; Gemini 2.5 Pro ranks higher for sticking to the facts.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6 Max Preview or Gemini 2.5 Pro?

Qwen3.6 Max Preview costs $2.31 per million tokens (three input to one output), against $3.44 for Gemini 2.5 Pro.

Run Qwen3.6 Max Preview and Gemini 2.5 Pro on your own prompt

Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.