Compare / Qwen3.6-Plus vs DeepSeek-V3.2
Qwen3.6-Plus vs DeepSeek-V3.2
Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 25 results on 4 sources that measured both models.
Of the 25 results both models have, the better value on each. Results whose reported ranges overlap are too close to call.
Results as of 9 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-09-dd620e778ac5). See also Alibaba vs DeepSeek, every model from both labs.
Qwen3.6-Plus or DeepSeek-V3.2? The short answer
Pick Qwen3.6-Plus if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 27.0 against 21.5). Pick DeepSeek-V3.2 if cost matters more: it costs 36% less per token.
- DeepSeek-V3.2 is cheaper: $0.46 against $0.73 per million tokens, 36% less.
- Qwen3.6-Plus scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 27.0 against 21.5.
- Qwen3.6-Plus is newer: released 31 Mar 2026, against 1 Dec 2025 for DeepSeek-V3.2.
- On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Qwen3.6-Plus does better for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge and writing.
Head to head
Every fact side by side
| Qwen3.6-Plus | DeepSeek-V3.2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per million tokens | $0.33 in · $1.95 out | $0.30 in · $0.96 out |
| Blended (3 in : 1 out) | $0.73 | $0.46 |
| Cheapest host, blended | – | $0.23 (GMICloud, FP8) |
| Intelligence Index | 27.0 | 21.5 |
| Spring Prompt overall | – | – |
| Output speed, tokens a second | – | – |
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens | 163,840 tokens |
| Released | 31 Mar 2026 (newer) | 1 Dec 2025 |
| Weights | Closed | Open |
| Developer based in | China | China |
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 the models on sale today, for each kind of work, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. Further right is better; the better rank is in green.
Every shared result
Each model's best result on every measure both have, grouped by benchmark, with the setting that produced it. Under each measure, every model that benchmark has measured is a grey tick, best to the right, so you can see where the two sit in the field. The headline measures of each benchmark come first; the rest are under "Show all". Green marks the better value; where a source reports ranges that overlap, neither is marked.
| Measure | Qwen3.6-Plus | DeepSeek-V3.2 |
|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results | ||
| Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 76 · 106 of 387 measured | 1,443 | 1,425 |
| Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better 84 · 85 of 163 measured | 1,438 | 1,437 |
| Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 75 · 102 of 380 measured | 1,446 | 1,423thinking reasoning |
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results | ||
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 62 · 96 of 243 measured | 27.0 | 21.5thinking reasoning |
| GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 58 · 89 of 231 measured | 88.2% | 84.0%thinking reasoning |
| Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 84 · 93 of 242 measured | 27.8% | 24.6%thinking reasoning |
| OpenHands Index reported by OpenHands Index · 3 results | ||
| Average% resolved, higher is better 16 · 21 of 34 measured | 52.9%openhands | 45.7%thinking reasoning, openhands |
| Front end (SWE-Bench Multimodal)% resolved, higher is better 20 · 24 of 34 measured | 30.9%openhands | 27.9%thinking reasoning, openhands |
| Greenfield (Commit0)% resolved, higher is better 14 · 14 of 34 measured | 25.0%openhands | 25.0%thinking reasoning, openhands |
| UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results | ||
| Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 49 · 54 of 230 measured | 58.2thinking reasoning | 57.3thinking reasoning |
| Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better 25 · 151 of 230 measured | 8.0%thinking reasoning | 26.0%no reasoning |
| Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better 96 · 55 of 230 measured | 0.35no reasoning | 0.37thinking reasoning |
Show all 25 results (13 more)
| Measure | Qwen3.6-Plus | DeepSeek-V3.2 |
|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 4 results | ||
| Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 82 · 93 of 385 measured | 1,407 | 1,401 |
| Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 68 · 94 of 338 measured | 1,476 | 1,452thinking reasoning |
| Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 74 · 94 of 387 measured | 1,435 | 1,420 |
| Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 76 · 91 of 386 measured | 1,423 | 1,410 |
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 6 results | ||
| Terminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks, higher is better 47 · 65 of 130 measured | 61.4% | 46.8%thinking reasoning |
| Artificial Analysis Coding Indexindex score, higher is better 50 · 67 of 131 measured | 54.5 | 44.2thinking reasoning |
| IFBench% of instructions, higher is better 29 · 79 of 195 measured | 75.2% | 60.7%thinking reasoning |
| Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 54 · 92 of 233 measured | 78.3% | 73.3%thinking reasoning |
| Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks, higher is better 23 · 47 of 190 measured | 43.9% | 35.6%thinking reasoning |
| τ²-bench telecom% of tasks, higher is better 7 · 40 of 193 measured | 97.7% | 90.6%thinking reasoning |
| OpenHands Index reported by OpenHands Index · 3 results | ||
| Information gathering (GAIA)% resolved, higher is better 11 · 22 of 34 measured | 72.1%openhands | 50.3%thinking reasoning, openhands |
| Issue resolution (SWE-Bench)% resolved, higher is better 17 · 24 of 34 measured | 74.2%openhands | 71.6%thinking reasoning, openhands |
| Testing (SWT-Bench)% resolved, higher is better 21 · 25 of 34 measured | 62.1%openhands | 53.6%thinking reasoning, openhands |
Compare them with other models
Quick answers
Is Qwen3.6-Plus better than DeepSeek-V3.2?
Pick Qwen3.6-Plus if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 27.0 against 21.5). Pick DeepSeek-V3.2 if cost matters more: it costs 36% less per token.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6-Plus or DeepSeek-V3.2?
DeepSeek-V3.2 is cheaper: $0.46 against $0.73 per million tokens, 36% less.
Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3.6-Plus or DeepSeek-V3.2?
Qwen3.6-Plus ranks 63 of 164 models on sale for multi-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls, against 87 for DeepSeek-V3.2.
Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Qwen3.6-Plus or DeepSeek-V3.2?
Qwen3.6-Plus ranks 67 of 198 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 85 for DeepSeek-V3.2.
Which is better for writing, Qwen3.6-Plus or DeepSeek-V3.2?
Qwen3.6-Plus ranks 54 of 188 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 65 for DeepSeek-V3.2.
Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3.6-Plus or DeepSeek-V3.2?
DeepSeek-V3.2 ranks 58 of 152 models on sale for summarising without inventing things, and factual answers, against 80 for Qwen3.6-Plus.
Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3.6-Plus or DeepSeek-V3.2?
Qwen3.6-Plus: 1,000,000 tokens, against 163,840 for DeepSeek-V3.2.
Run Qwen3.6-Plus and DeepSeek-V3.2 on your own prompt
Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.