Gemini 4 Carbon vs Qwen3.6 27B
Gemini 4 Carbon leads Qwen3.6 27B on coding, 86.6 to 36.8 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Qwen3.6 27B costs 3.7x less per output token ($2.70 vs $10.00 per million). Updated November 14, 2026; 9 benchmarks have a result for both.
Gemini 4 Carbon or Qwen3.6 27B: which to pick
Pick Gemini 4 Carbon for coding: it scores 86.6 on the Vibe Coding Index against 36.8 for Qwen3.6 27B.
Pick Qwen3.6 27B for output tokens 3.7x cheaper ($2.70 vs $10.00 per million).
- Shared results
- 9
- Gemini 4 Carbon only
- 64
- Qwen3.6 27B only
- 16
- 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
Gemini 4 Carbon
Gemini 4 Carbon scores 86.6 against 36.8.
4 and 2 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
No call
Only Gemini 4 Carbon has a AA Intelligence Index result, 60.0.
Directional only
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Qwen3.6 27B has a AA Agentic Index result, 18.5.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Gemini 4 Carbon has a Design Arena: websites result, 1319.
Directional only
General
Vals Index
No call
Only Gemini 4 Carbon has a Vals Index result, 70.5%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Gemini 4 Carbon
Gemini 4 Carbon takes 1.05M tokens against 262K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Qwen3.6 27B
Gemini 4 Carbon $0.0070, 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
- Gemini 4 Carbon 86.6 from 4 benchmarks, Qwen3.6 27B 36.8 from 2 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Coding, 71.1 points apart on average over 2 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI): Gemini 4 Carbon 89.1% against Qwen3.6 27B 11.9%, 77.1 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Gemini 4 Carbon $10.00 against Qwen3.6 27B $2.70 per million output tokens, 3.7x apart.
- Context window
- Gemini 4 Carbon takes 1.05M 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 | Gemini 4 Carbon | Bars | Qwen3.6 27B | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 2 | 0 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 2 | 0 | ||
| Math | 2 | 0 | ||
| General | 2 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 9 | 0 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index20
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Carbon | Qwen3.6 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | 91.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1768 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| AA Coding Index | Not measured | 53.7 | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | Not measured | 70.0% | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 63.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 89.1% | 11.9% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| SciCode | Not measured | 42.8% | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 34.8% | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4.0 (Artificial Analysis run) | 65.2% | 0.0% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| FrontierCode 2.0 | 40.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| FrontierSWE | 61.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| ALE-Bench | 2374.7 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1564 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1552 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1792 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1770 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| CursorBench 4.0 | 60.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 35 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Carbon | Qwen3.6 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 60.0 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 169.8 | 146.7 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index12 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Carbon | Qwen3.6 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | Not measured | 18.5 | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | 1284 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Design Arena: spreadsheets | 1224 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LiveBench research | 92.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LiveBench browser | 80.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | 72.7% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 51.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 55.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | 17.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | Not measured | 94.2% | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| APEX-Agents | 84.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $16,484 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 32 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Carbon | Qwen3.6 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench reasoning | 90.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 84.2% | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 23.1% | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| HLE-Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 69.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| CritPt v2, hard subset (Artificial Analysis run) | 69.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 96.5% | 85.9% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| ARC-AGI | 98.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 94.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| SimpleBench | 92.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Chess puzzles | 78.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 73.0% | 7.0% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| EBR-bench | 87.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1551 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1582 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1545 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 11 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Carbon | Qwen3.6 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | 100.0% | 91.1% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 90.5% | 35.1% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 95.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1538 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| MathArena | 85.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index12 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Carbon | 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 |
| AA-Omniscience | 53.5 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | 77.7% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1535 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1525 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1542 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1520 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| FACTS Benchmark Suite | 78.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| PRBench Legal | 53.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Carbon | Qwen3.6 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1319 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1357 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1326 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1434 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1348 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LiveBench design | 80.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Carbon | Qwen3.6 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | 70.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LiveBench data analysis | 86.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| IFBench | Not measured | 67.6% | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 79.3% | 77.3% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| GDPval-AA | 1733 | 993 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| DTBench | Not measured | 78.1% | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| LMCA | Not measured | 34.5% | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| Furniture assembly | 77.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text | 1538 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1539 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1533 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1530 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1534 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1613 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1560 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1569 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1549 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1542 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1527 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| EQ-Bench 4 | Not measured | 1015 | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 29 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Carbon | 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
Qwen3.6 27B costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Qwen3.6 27B costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Qwen3.6 27B 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 4 Carbon | Qwen3.6 27B |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Qwen | |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | November 10, 2026 | April 27, 2026 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 262K |
| Input $/Mtok | $2.00 | $0.45 |
| Output $/Mtok | $10.00 | $2.70 |
| Coding index | 86.6 | 36.8 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 4 | 2 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | $1.30 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Gemini 4 Carbon better than Qwen3.6 27B for coding?
Pick Gemini 4 Carbon for coding: it scores 86.6 on the Vibe Coding Index against 36.8 for Qwen3.6 27B. Pick Qwen3.6 27B for output tokens 3.7x cheaper ($2.70 vs $10.00 per million).
Which is cheaper, Gemini 4 Carbon or Qwen3.6 27B?
Gemini 4 Carbon costs $2.00 per million input tokens and $10.00 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, Gemini 4 Carbon or Qwen3.6 27B?
Gemini 4 Carbon, with 1.05M tokens against 262K.
How many benchmarks is the Gemini 4 Carbon vs Qwen3.6 27B comparison based on?
9 benchmarks have a result for both models as of November 14, 2026. Gemini 4 Carbon's coding index rests on 4 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.