Compare / Qwen3.6-Plus vs Gemini 3.6 Flash
Qwen3.6-Plus vs Gemini 3.6 Flash
Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 18 results on 4 sources that measured both models.
Of the 18 results both models have, the better value on each. Results whose reported ranges overlap are too close to call.
Results as of 14 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-14-7d7cf32c3f6d). See also Alibaba vs Google, every model from both labs.
Qwen3.6-Plus or Gemini 3.6 Flash? The short answer
Pick Gemini 3.6 Flash if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 34.0 against 27.0). Pick Qwen3.6-Plus if cost matters more: it costs 4.1 times less per token.
- Qwen3.6-Plus is cheaper: $0.73 against $3.00 per million tokens, 4.1 times less.
- Gemini 3.6 Flash scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 34.0 against 27.0.
- Gemini 3.6 Flash is newer: released 21 Jul 2026, against 31 Mar 2026 for Qwen3.6-Plus.
- On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Gemini 3.6 Flash does better for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge, writing and sticking to the facts.
Head to head
Every fact side by side
| Qwen3.6-Plus | Gemini 3.6 Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per million tokens | $0.33 in · $1.95 out | $1.50 in · $7.50 out |
| Blended (3 in : 1 out) | $0.73 | $3.00 |
| Cheapest host, blended | – | $1.50 (Google) |
| Intelligence Index | 27.0 | 34.0 |
| Spring Prompt overall | – | – |
| Output speed, tokens a second | – | – |
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Released | 31 Mar 2026 | 21 Jul 2026 (newer) |
| Weights | Closed | Closed |
| Developer based in | China | the 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 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.
From our research
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 | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results | ||
| Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 76 · 19 of 387 measured | 1,443 | 1,483high reasoning |
| Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better 84 · 23 of 163 measured | 1,438 | 1,471high reasoning |
| Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 75 · 30 of 380 measured | 1,446 | 1,472high reasoning |
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results | ||
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 63 · 42 of 244 measured | 27.0 | 34.0high reasoning |
| GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 58 · 15 of 231 measured | 88.2% | 92.8%high reasoning |
| Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 85 · 38 of 243 measured | 27.8% | 40.8%high reasoning |
| SimpleQA Verified (Epoch AI) reported by SimpleQA Verified (Epoch AI) · 1 result | ||
| Correct answers% of questions, higher is better 38 · 11 of 76 measured | 44.1% | 66.2%high reasoning |
| UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results | ||
| Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 49 · 11 of 230 measured | 58.2thinking reasoning | 69.8medium reasoning |
| Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better 25 · 33 of 230 measured | 8.0%thinking reasoning | 9.0%minimal reasoning |
| Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better 96 · 159 of 230 measured | 0.35no reasoning | 0.33medium reasoning |
Show all 18 results (8 more)
| Measure | Qwen3.6-Plus | Gemini 3.6 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 4 results | ||
| Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 82 · 12 of 385 measured | 1,407 | 1,471high reasoning |
| Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 68 · 37 of 338 measured | 1,476 | 1,500high reasoning |
| Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 74 · 28 of 387 measured | 1,435 | 1,472high reasoning |
| Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 76 · 16 of 386 measured | 1,423 | 1,474high reasoning |
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 4 results | ||
| Terminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks, higher is better 47 · 32 of 130 measured | 61.4% | 77.5%high reasoning |
| τ-bench banking% of tasks, higher is better 48 · 36 of 121 measured | 20.8% | 29.9%high reasoning |
| Artificial Analysis Coding Indexindex score, higher is better 50 · 28 of 131 measured | 54.5 | 69.2high reasoning |
| Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 55 · 39 of 234 measured | 78.3% | 80.0%high reasoning |
Compare them with other models
Quick answers
Is Qwen3.6-Plus better than Gemini 3.6 Flash?
Pick Gemini 3.6 Flash if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 34.0 against 27.0). Pick Qwen3.6-Plus if cost matters more: it costs 4.1 times less per token.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6-Plus or Gemini 3.6 Flash?
Qwen3.6-Plus is cheaper: $0.73 against $3.00 per million tokens, 4.1 times less.
Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3.6-Plus or Gemini 3.6 Flash?
Gemini 3.6 Flash ranks 50 of 166 models on sale for multi-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls, against 64 for Qwen3.6-Plus.
Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Qwen3.6-Plus or Gemini 3.6 Flash?
Gemini 3.6 Flash ranks 33 of 200 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 69 for Qwen3.6-Plus.
Which is better for writing, Qwen3.6-Plus or Gemini 3.6 Flash?
Gemini 3.6 Flash ranks 14 of 189 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 55 for Qwen3.6-Plus.
Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3.6-Plus or Gemini 3.6 Flash?
Gemini 3.6 Flash ranks 22 of 153 models on sale for summarising without inventing things, and factual answers, against 81 for Qwen3.6-Plus.
Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3.6-Plus or Gemini 3.6 Flash?
Gemini 3.6 Flash: 1,048,576 tokens, against 1,000,000 for Qwen3.6-Plus.
Run Qwen3.6-Plus and Gemini 3.6 Flash on your own prompt
Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.