Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Qwen3.6 Plus
Qwen3.6 Plus leads Gemini 3 Flash Preview on coding, 44.1 to 43.7 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Qwen3.6 Plus costs 1.5x less per output token ($1.95 vs $3.00 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 44 benchmarks have a result for both.
Gemini 3 Flash Preview or Qwen3.6 Plus: which to pick
Gemini 3 Flash Preview and Qwen3.6 Plus are level for coding, 43.7 against 44.1 on the Vibe Coding Index, so price and context decide.
Pick Gemini 3 Flash Preview for a lower cost per solved task ($0.37 against $1.19) and a larger context window (1.05M against 1M tokens). Pick Qwen3.6 Plus for output tokens 1.5x cheaper ($1.95 vs $3.00 per million) and work measured by LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) or Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI), where it leads.
- Shared results
- 44
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview only
- 27
- Qwen3.6 Plus only
- 39
- Like-for-like categories
- 8 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
Level: 43.7 against 44.1, inside 2 points.
2 and 3 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Qwen3.6 Plus
Qwen3.6 Plus leads, 27.0 against 26.3.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads, 87.9% against 87.4%.
Same board, both measured
Math
AIME
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads, 95.6% against 94.6%.
Same board, both measured
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads, 88.6% against 87.7%.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
Qwen3.6 Plus
Qwen3.6 Plus leads, 1243 against 1196.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Gemini 3 Flash Preview takes 1.05M tokens against 1M.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Qwen3.6 Plus
Gemini 3 Flash Preview $0.0020, Qwen3.6 Plus $0.0013 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Gemini 3 Flash Preview $0.37, Qwen3.6 Plus $1.19.
Published attempt cost and pass rate
At a glance
- Coding index
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview 43.7 from 2 benchmarks, Qwen3.6 Plus 44.1 from 3 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Reasoning, 7.8 points apart on average over 7 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- Chess puzzles: Gemini 3 Flash Preview 39.0% against Qwen3.6 Plus 14.0%, 25.0 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview $3.00 against Qwen3.6 Plus $1.95 per million output tokens, 1.5x apart.
- Context window
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview takes 1.05M tokens, Qwen3.6 Plus 1M.
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 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Bars | Qwen3.6 Plus | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 3 | 4 | 1 tie | |
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 3 | 3 | ||
| Reasoning | 7 | 0 | ||
| Math | 3 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 7 | 1 | ||
| Web design | 0 | 4 | ||
| General | 5 | 2 | ||
| All shared boards | 28 | 15 | 1 tie |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index34
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Qwen3.6 Plus | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | 75.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LMArena WebDev | Not measured | 1461 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| AA Coding Index | Not measured | 54.5 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 85.6% | 86.0% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 75.0% | 73.4% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 20.2% | 25.6% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 6.4% | 11.1% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 0.0% | 0.0% | Tie |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 53.9% | 53.2% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 90.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 38.6% | 43.9% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| Terminal-Bench | 64.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| GSO-Bench | 9.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| WeirdML | 61.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| ALE-Bench | 1367.2 | 670.1 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| LMArena Text: coding | Not measured | 1467 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | Not measured | 1462 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | Not measured | 1454 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | Not measured | 1463 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | Not measured | 1472 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| SciCode | 12.7% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 18 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Qwen3.6 Plus | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 26.3 | 27.0 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 147.3 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index33
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Qwen3.6 Plus | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | 1111 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps | 1063 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | 1090 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Android apps | 1051 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Godot games | 1161 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: PowerPoint slides | 1036 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 42.5% | 40.9% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 11.8% | 7.7% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 18.3% | 14.9% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 26.0% | 32.9% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 80.4% | 97.7% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| BALROG | 48.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| DeepResearch Bench | 49.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $3,635 | $5,115 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| Neither model has a result on the other 27 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index70
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Qwen3.6 Plus | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 87.9% | 87.4% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 87.6% | 84.2% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 89.8% | 88.2% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 36.6% | 27.8% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 89.4% | 88.4% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| ARC-AGI | 84.7% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 33.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| SimpleBench | 61.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Chess puzzles | 39.0% | 14.0% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Mystery game puzzles | 26.0% | 12.0% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| VPCT | 72.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | Not measured | 1448 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | Not measured | 1454 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | Not measured | 1455 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index30
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Qwen3.6 Plus | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 95.6% | 94.6% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| MGSM (Vals AI) | 93.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| AA Math Index | 97.0 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 97.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 95.6% | 93.3% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 51.2% | 38.2% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 17.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| ProofBench | 15.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: math | Not measured | 1449 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | Not measured | 1448 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index71
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Qwen3.6 Plus | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 88.6% | 87.7% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 86.9% | 84.2% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 55.8% | 51.5% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 66.4% | 61.9% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 73.9% | 74.7% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 68.7% | 68.0% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | 95.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 55.9% | 36.9% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 89.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | 66.8% | 44.1% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| GeoBench | 88.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: science | Not measured | 1439 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | Not measured | 1442 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | Not measured | 1437 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | Not measured | 1430 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| FACTS Benchmark Suite | 63.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index04
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Qwen3.6 Plus | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1196 | 1243 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| Design Arena: UI components | Not measured | 1230 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1166 | 1211 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| Design Arena: data viz | Not measured | 1228 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1183 | 1202 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1189 | 1236 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| Design Arena: SVG | Not measured | 1161 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | Not measured | 1113 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index52
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Qwen3.6 Plus | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 51.8% | 44.9% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 69.9% | 77.0% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| Vals Multimodal Index | 52.2% | 51.5% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| IFBench | 78.0% | 75.2% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 78.0% | 78.3% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| DTBench | 89.1% | 81.9% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| LMCA | 43.1% | 33.1% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| CL-bench | Not measured | 20.3% | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| LMArena Text | Not measured | 1436 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | Not measured | 1424 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | Not measured | 1404 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| LMArena Text: English | Not measured | 1445 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | Not measured | 1424 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | Not measured | 1477 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| LMArena Text: German | Not measured | 1451 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | Not measured | 1390 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | Not measured | 1379 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1455 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1432 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | Not measured | 1434 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | Not measured | 1433 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | Not measured | 1438 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | Not measured | 1439 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | Not measured | 1418 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | Not measured | 1402 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 21 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Qwen3.6 Plus | 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
Qwen3.6 Plus costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Qwen3.6 Plus costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Qwen3.6 Plus 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 | Google Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Qwen | |
| Weights | No public weights listed | No public weights listed |
| Released | December 17, 2025 | April 2, 2026 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 1M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.50 | $0.325 |
| Output $/Mtok | $3.00 | $1.95 |
| Coding index | 43.7 | 44.1 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 2 | 3 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.37 | $1.19 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Gemini 3 Flash Preview better than Qwen3.6 Plus for coding?
Gemini 3 Flash Preview and Qwen3.6 Plus are level for coding, 43.7 against 44.1 on the Vibe Coding Index, so price and context decide. Pick Gemini 3 Flash Preview for a lower cost per solved task ($0.37 against $1.19) and a larger context window (1.05M against 1M tokens). Pick Qwen3.6 Plus for output tokens 1.5x cheaper ($1.95 vs $3.00 per million) and work measured by LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) or Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI), where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3 Flash Preview or Qwen3.6 Plus?
Gemini 3 Flash Preview costs $0.50 per million input tokens and $3.00 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 Plus costs $0.325 and $1.95. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Gemini 3 Flash Preview costs $0.37 and Qwen3.6 Plus $1.19.
Which has the bigger context window, Gemini 3 Flash Preview or Qwen3.6 Plus?
Gemini 3 Flash Preview, with 1.05M tokens against 1M.
How many benchmarks is the Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs Qwen3.6 Plus comparison based on?
44 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Gemini 3 Flash Preview's coding index rests on 2 independent benchmarks and Qwen3.6 Plus's on 3. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.