Compare / Qwen3.6-Plus vs Gemini 3.8 Flash

Qwen3.6-Plus vs Gemini 3.8 Flash

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 19 results on 5 sources that measured both models.

AlibabaQwen3.6-Plus Released 31 Mar 2026 · $0.33 in · $1.95 out
GoogleGemini 3.8 Flash Released 2 Sep 2026 · $1.50 in · $7.50 out
Qwen3.6-Plus wins 3Gemini 3.8 Flash wins 16

Of the 19 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 Google, every model from both labs.

Qwen3.6-Plus or Gemini 3.8 Flash? The short answer

Pick Gemini 3.8 Flash if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 40.9 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 3.8 Flash scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 40.9 against 27.0.
  • Gemini 3.8 Flash is newer: released 2 Sep 2026, against 31 Mar 2026 for Qwen3.6-Plus.
  • On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Gemini 3.8 Flash does better for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge, writing and sticking to the facts.

Head to head

27.0
Intelligence Index
40.9
$0.73
Price per million tokens, blendedlower is better
$3.00
1,000,000
Context window, tokens
1,048,576

Every fact side by side

Qwen3.6-PlusGemini 3.8 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 Index27.040.9
Spring Prompt overall–61
Output speed, tokens a second–147
Context window1,000,000 tokens1,048,576 tokens
Released31 Mar 20262 Sep 2026 (newer)
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 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.

Product listingsTurning a sparse product feed and photos into listings that can go live not measured 12 of 20
Decks from an analysisTurning a finished analysis into a deck you could present as it is not measured 12 of 19
Marketing planningPlanning a year of ad spend without overspending not measured 7 of 19
Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 63 of 164 31 of 164
Professional workReal tasks from banking, consulting and law, business documents and freelance projects not measured 11 of 51
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 67 of 198 12 of 198
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 54 of 188 2 of 188
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 80 of 152 12 of 152
Speed under pressureGood decisions against a real clock (fast chess) not measured 5 of 23

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.

MeasureQwen3.6-PlusGemini 3.8 Flash
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results
Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 76 · 7 of 387 measured 1,443 1,495high reasoning
Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better 84 · 16 of 163 measured 1,438 1,477high reasoning
Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 75 · 21 of 380 measured 1,446 1,481high reasoning
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 62 · 22 of 243 measured 27.0 40.9high reasoning
GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 58 · 2 of 231 measured 88.2% 95.3%high reasoning
Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 84 · 15 of 242 measured 27.8% 47.8%high reasoning
SimpleQA Verified (Epoch AI) reported by SimpleQA Verified (Epoch AI) · 1 result
Correct answers% of questions, higher is better 38 · 7 of 76 measured 44.1% 69.7%high reasoning
UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results
Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 49 · 1 of 230 measured 58.2thinking reasoning 78.6medium reasoning
Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better 25 · 57 of 230 measured 8.0%thinking reasoning 13.0%high reasoning
Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better 96 · 132 of 230 measured 0.35no reasoning 0.34high reasoning
Vending-Bench 2 reported by Vending-Bench 2 · 1 result
Money after a yearUS dollars, higher is better 25 · 26 of 58 measured $5,115 $5,094
Show all 19 results (8 more)
MeasureQwen3.6-PlusGemini 3.8 Flash
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 4 results
Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 82 · 7 of 385 measured 1,407 1,485high reasoning
Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 68 · 13 of 338 measured 1,476 1,526high reasoning
Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 74 · 12 of 387 measured 1,435 1,486high reasoning
Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 76 · 8 of 386 measured 1,423 1,487high reasoning
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 4 results
Terminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks, higher is better 47 · 8 of 130 measured 61.4% 87.6%high reasoning
τ-bench banking% of tasks, higher is better 48 · 11 of 121 measured 20.8% 45.8%medium reasoning
Artificial Analysis Coding Indexindex score, higher is better 50 · 9 of 131 measured 54.5 76.3high reasoning
Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 54 · 6 of 233 measured 78.3% 84.0%medium reasoning

Quick answers

Is Qwen3.6-Plus better than Gemini 3.8 Flash?

Pick Gemini 3.8 Flash if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 40.9 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 3.8 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 3.8 Flash?

Gemini 3.8 Flash ranks 31 of 164 models on sale for multi-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls, against 63 for Qwen3.6-Plus.

Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Qwen3.6-Plus or Gemini 3.8 Flash?

Gemini 3.8 Flash ranks 12 of 198 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 67 for Qwen3.6-Plus.

Which is better for writing, Qwen3.6-Plus or Gemini 3.8 Flash?

Gemini 3.8 Flash ranks 2 of 188 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 54 for Qwen3.6-Plus.

Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3.6-Plus or Gemini 3.8 Flash?

Gemini 3.8 Flash ranks 12 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 Gemini 3.8 Flash?

Gemini 3.8 Flash: 1,048,576 tokens, against 1,000,000 for Qwen3.6-Plus.

Run Qwen3.6-Plus and Gemini 3.8 Flash on your own prompt

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