Compare / Qwen3.6-Plus vs Gemma 4 26B A4B

Qwen3.6-Plus vs Gemma 4 26B A4B

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 20 results on 3 sources that measured both models.

AlibabaQwen3.6-Plus Released 31 Mar 2026 · $0.33 in · $1.95 out
GoogleGemma 4 26B A4B Released 2 Apr 2026 · $0.10 in · $0.30 out
Qwen3.6-Plus wins 118 too close to callGemma 4 26B A4B wins 1

Of the 20 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 Gemma 4 26B A4B? The short answer

Pick Qwen3.6-Plus if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 27.0 against 16.7). Pick Gemma 4 26B A4B if cost matters more: it costs 4.9 times less per token.

  • Gemma 4 26B A4B is cheaper: $0.15 against $0.73 per million tokens, 4.9 times less.
  • Qwen3.6-Plus scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 27.0 against 16.7.
  • Gemma 4 26B A4B is newer: released 2 Apr 2026, against 31 Mar 2026 for Qwen3.6-Plus.
  • 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

27.0
Intelligence Index
16.7
$0.73
Price per million tokens, blendedlower is better
$0.15
1,000,000
Context window, tokens
262,144

Every fact side by side

Qwen3.6-PlusGemma 4 26B A4B
Price per million tokens$0.33 in · $1.95 out$0.10 in · $0.30 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.73$0.15
Cheapest host, blended–$0.086 (Darkbloom)
Intelligence Index27.016.7
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second–91
Context window1,000,000 tokens262,144 tokens
Released31 Mar 20262 Apr 2026 (newer)
WeightsClosedOpen
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.

Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 63 of 164 94 of 164
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 67 of 198 104 of 198
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 54 of 188 83 of 188
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 80 of 152 41 of 152

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-PlusGemma 4 26B A4B
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results
Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 76 · 87 of 387 measured 1,443 1,437
Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better 84 · 71 of 163 measured 1,438 1,445
Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 75 · 78 of 380 measured 1,446 1,444
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 62 · 117 of 243 measured 27.0 16.7
GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 58 · 112 of 231 measured 88.2% 79.2%
Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 84 · 111 of 242 measured 27.8% 19.3%
UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results
Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 49 · 92 of 230 measured 58.2thinking reasoning 43.8channel-thought-prefill reasoning
Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better 25 · 25 of 230 measured 8.0%thinking reasoning 8.0%
Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better 96 · 93 of 230 measured 0.35no reasoning 0.35channel-thought-prefill reasoning
Show all 20 results (11 more)
MeasureQwen3.6-PlusGemma 4 26B A4B
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 4 results
Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 82 · 96 of 385 measured 1,407 1,400
Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 68 · 71 of 338 measured 1,476 1,475
Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 74 · 71 of 387 measured 1,435 1,437
Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 76 · 97 of 386 measured 1,423 1,406
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 7 results
Terminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks, higher is better 47 · 74 of 130 measured 61.4% 39.0%
τ-bench banking% of tasks, higher is better 48 · 70 of 121 measured 20.8% 12.0%
Artificial Analysis Coding Indexindex score, higher is better 50 · 75 of 131 measured 54.5 39.3
IFBench% of instructions, higher is better 29 · 40 of 195 measured 75.2% 72.4%
Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 54 · 123 of 233 measured 78.3% 65.7%
Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks, higher is better 23 · 78 of 190 measured 43.9% 25.0%no reasoning
τ²-bench telecom% of tasks, higher is better 7 · 110 of 193 measured 97.7% 43.6%

Quick answers

Is Qwen3.6-Plus better than Gemma 4 26B A4B?

Pick Qwen3.6-Plus if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 27.0 against 16.7). Pick Gemma 4 26B A4B if cost matters more: it costs 4.9 times less per token.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6-Plus or Gemma 4 26B A4B?

Gemma 4 26B A4B is cheaper: $0.15 against $0.73 per million tokens, 4.9 times less.

Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3.6-Plus or Gemma 4 26B A4B?

Qwen3.6-Plus ranks 63 of 164 models on sale for multi-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls, against 94 for Gemma 4 26B A4B.

Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Qwen3.6-Plus or Gemma 4 26B A4B?

Qwen3.6-Plus ranks 67 of 198 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 104 for Gemma 4 26B A4B.

Which is better for writing, Qwen3.6-Plus or Gemma 4 26B A4B?

Qwen3.6-Plus ranks 54 of 188 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 83 for Gemma 4 26B A4B.

Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3.6-Plus or Gemma 4 26B A4B?

Gemma 4 26B A4B ranks 41 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 Gemma 4 26B A4B?

Qwen3.6-Plus: 1,000,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Gemma 4 26B A4B.

Run Qwen3.6-Plus and Gemma 4 26B A4B on your own prompt

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