DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus vs Qwen3.6 27B
Qwen3.6 27B leads DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 21.4 to 14.8, and DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus costs 2.7x less per output token ($1.0142 vs $2.70 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 12 benchmarks have a result for both.
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus or Qwen3.6 27B: which to pick
Only Qwen3.6 27B has a coding score, 36.8 on the Vibe Coding Index; DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus for output tokens 2.7x cheaper ($1.0142 vs $2.70 per million) and work measured by DTBench, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 12
- DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus only
- 33
- Qwen3.6 27B only
- 12
- Like-for-like categories
- 5 of 9
Only benchmarks that tested both models count toward a pick; a result only one model has is shown but not compared.
Which one for your work
Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
No call
Only Qwen3.6 27B has a coding score, so no call is made.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Qwen3.6 27B
Qwen3.6 27B leads, 21.4 against 14.8.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
Qwen3.6 27B
Qwen3.6 27B leads, 18.5 against 6.8.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus has a Design Arena: websites result, 1187.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Qwen3.6 27B
Qwen3.6 27B takes 262K tokens against 164K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus $0.0008, Qwen3.6 27B $0.0018 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Qwen3.6 27B has the number, $1.30.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus not benchmarked, Qwen3.6 27B 36.8 from 2 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 34.4 points apart on average over 2 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- τ²-Bench Telecom: DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus 37.1% against Qwen3.6 27B 94.2%, 57.0 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus $1.0142 against Qwen3.6 27B $2.70 per million output tokens, 2.7x apart.
- Context window
- DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus takes 164K tokens, Qwen3.6 27B 262K.
Benchmark by benchmark
First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.
| Category | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus | Bars | Qwen3.6 27B | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 3 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 2 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 2 | ||
| General | 1 | 3 | ||
| All shared boards | 1 | 11 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index03
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus | Qwen3.6 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Coding Index | 43.5 | 53.7 | Qwen3.6 27B |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | Not measured | 70.0% | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 11.9% | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 79.8% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| SciCode | 38.0% | 42.8% | Qwen3.6 27B |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 31.8% | 34.8% | Qwen3.6 27B |
| ALE-Bench | 745.2 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1425 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1426 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 30 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus | Qwen3.6 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 14.8 | 21.4 | Qwen3.6 27B |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 146.2 | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus | Qwen3.6 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 6.8 | 18.5 | Qwen3.6 27B |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 37.1% | 94.2% | Qwen3.6 27B |
| Neither model has a result on the other 39 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus | Qwen3.6 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 79.2% | 84.2% | Qwen3.6 27B |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 16.4% | 23.1% | Qwen3.6 27B |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | Not measured | 85.9% | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | Not measured | 7.0% | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1426 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1432 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 57.4% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 15 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index5 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus | Qwen3.6 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Math Index | 89.7 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 89.7% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | Not measured | 91.1% | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | Not measured | 35.1% | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1402 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index9 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus | Qwen3.6 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | Not measured | 53.2% | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | Not measured | 62.3% | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | Not measured | 71.3% | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | Not measured | 68.3% | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 85.1% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1451 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1468 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1457 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1414 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus | Qwen3.6 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1187 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1182 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1131 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1168 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1141 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1175 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1065 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index13
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus | Qwen3.6 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAGE (Vals AI) | Not measured | 45.6% | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| IFBench | 57.0% | 67.6% | Qwen3.6 27B |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 69.3% | 77.3% | Qwen3.6 27B |
| DTBench | 81.3% | 78.1% | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus |
| LMCA | 28.6% | 34.5% | Qwen3.6 27B |
| LMArena Text | 1419 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1404 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1403 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1429 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1408 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1435 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1427 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1411 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1422 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1409 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1391 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 30 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus | Qwen3.6 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 5 boards here | |||
What each workload costs
Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.
Chat turn
1K input + 500 output tokens
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus costs less
Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.
Specification differences
The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.
| Specification | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus | Qwen3.6 27B |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | DeepSeek | Qwen |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | September 22, 2025 | April 27, 2026 |
| Context window | 164K | 262K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.3063 | $0.45 |
| Output $/Mtok | $1.0142 | $2.70 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | 36.8 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 0 | 2 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | $1.30 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus better than Qwen3.6 27B for coding?
Only Qwen3.6 27B has a coding score, 36.8 on the Vibe Coding Index; DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus for output tokens 2.7x cheaper ($1.0142 vs $2.70 per million) and work measured by DTBench, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus or Qwen3.6 27B?
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus costs $0.3063 per million input tokens and $1.0142 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 27B costs $0.45 and $2.70. Cost per solved task is known for Qwen3.6 27B only.
Which has the bigger context window, DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus or Qwen3.6 27B?
Qwen3.6 27B, with 262K tokens against 164K.
How many benchmarks is the DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus vs Qwen3.6 27B comparison based on?
12 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus's coding index rests on 0 independent benchmarks and Qwen3.6 27B's on 2. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.