o4 Mini vs Qwen3.6 27B
Qwen3.6 27B leads o4 Mini on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 21.4 to 16.7, and Qwen3.6 27B costs 1.6x less per output token ($2.70 vs $4.40 per million). Updated October 21, 2026; 18 benchmarks have a result for both.
o4 Mini or Qwen3.6 27B: which to pick
Only Qwen3.6 27B has a coding score, 36.8 on the Vibe Coding Index; o4 Mini has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick o4 Mini for work measured by FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 or TaxEval (Vals AI), where it leads.
- Shared results
- 18
- o4 Mini only
- 76
- Qwen3.6 27B only
- 6
- Like-for-like categories
- 7 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 16.7.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Qwen3.6 27B has a AA Agentic Index result, 18.5.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only o4 Mini has a GPQA Diamond result, 74.5%.
Directional only
Math
AIME
No call
Only o4 Mini has a AIME result, 83.7%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only o4 Mini has a MMLU Pro result, 80.6%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only o4 Mini has a Design Arena: websites result, 985.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Qwen3.6 27B
Qwen3.6 27B takes 262K tokens against 200K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Qwen3.6 27B
o4 Mini $0.0033, 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
- o4 Mini not benchmarked, Qwen3.6 27B 36.8 from 2 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 38.6 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- τ²-Bench Telecom: o4 Mini 55.6% against Qwen3.6 27B 94.2%, 38.6 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- o4 Mini $4.40 against Qwen3.6 27B $2.70 per million output tokens, 1.6x apart.
- Context window
- o4 Mini takes 200K 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 | o4 Mini | Bars | Qwen3.6 27B | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 1 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 2 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 4 | ||
| Math | 1 | 1 | ||
| Knowledge | 1 | 2 | ||
| General | 1 | 4 | ||
| All shared boards | 3 | 15 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index01
| Benchmark | o4 Mini | Qwen3.6 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aider polyglot | 72.0% | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| SWE-bench Verified | 64.6% | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| SWE-bench Multimodal | 33.9% | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| AA Coding Index | Not measured | 53.7 | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 82.2% | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| 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) | 85.9% | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 42.8% | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 15.2% | 34.8% | Qwen3.6 27B |
| GSO-Bench | 3.6% | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| WeirdML | 52.6% | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1368 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1367 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 24 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | o4 Mini | Qwen3.6 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 16.7 | 21.4 | Qwen3.6 27B |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 145.5 | 146.2 | Qwen3.6 27B |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | o4 Mini | Qwen3.6 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | Not measured | 18.5 | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 55.6% | 94.2% | Qwen3.6 27B |
| METR time horizons | 63.9% | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 36 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index04
| Benchmark | o4 Mini | Qwen3.6 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 74.5% | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 79.7% | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 78.4% | 84.2% | Qwen3.6 27B |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 16.5% | 23.1% | Qwen3.6 27B |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 79.6% | 85.9% | Qwen3.6 27B |
| ARC-AGI | 58.7% | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 6.1% | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| SimpleBench | 38.7% | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| Chess puzzles | 22.0% | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 5.0% | 7.0% | Qwen3.6 27B |
| VPCT | 57.5% | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1351 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1343 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1366 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1197 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1234 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11
| Benchmark | o4 Mini | Qwen3.6 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 83.7% | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| MATH 500 (Vals AI) | 94.2% | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| MGSM (Vals AI) | 93.4% | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| AA Math Index | 90.7 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 90.7% | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 81.7% | 91.1% | Qwen3.6 27B |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 36.1% | 35.1% | o4 Mini |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 4.9% | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| MATH level 5 | 97.8% | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1389 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1379 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index12
| Benchmark | o4 Mini | Qwen3.6 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 80.6% | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 79.2% | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | Not measured | 53.2% | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 59.0% | 62.3% | Qwen3.6 27B |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 74.8% | 71.3% | o4 Mini |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 64.8% | 68.3% | Qwen3.6 27B |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | 96.0% | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 33.8% | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 83.2% | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | 19.6% | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| GeoBench | 64.0% | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1354 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1361 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1350 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1325 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | o4 Mini | Qwen3.6 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 985 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 983 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1003 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 990 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 854 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 976 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index14
| Benchmark | o4 Mini | Qwen3.6 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 41.1% | 45.6% | Qwen3.6 27B |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 69.1% | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| IFBench | 68.7% | 67.6% | o4 Mini |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 61.0% | 77.3% | Qwen3.6 27B |
| DTBench | 77.6% | 78.1% | Qwen3.6 27B |
| LMCA | 26.5% | 34.5% | Qwen3.6 27B |
| Fiction.LiveBench | 77.8% | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| Creative writing (Lech Mazur) | 75.0% | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text | 1353 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1320 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1294 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Vision | 1194 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1367 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1337 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1354 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: German | 1336 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1308 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1312 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1364 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1346 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1334 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1358 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1350 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1315 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1316 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1308 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1200 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1218 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1197 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | 1199 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Vision: captioning | 1204 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Vision: recognizing things | 1218 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1166 | Not measured | Only o4 Mini measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | o4 Mini | 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 | OpenAI o4 Mini | Qwen3.6 27B |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | OpenAI | Qwen |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | April 16, 2025 | April 27, 2026 |
| Context window | 200K | 262K |
| Input $/Mtok | $1.10 | $0.45 |
| Output $/Mtok | $4.40 | $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 o4 Mini better than Qwen3.6 27B for coding?
Only Qwen3.6 27B has a coding score, 36.8 on the Vibe Coding Index; o4 Mini has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick o4 Mini for work measured by FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 or TaxEval (Vals AI), where it leads.
Which is cheaper, o4 Mini or Qwen3.6 27B?
o4 Mini costs $1.10 per million input tokens and $4.40 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, o4 Mini or Qwen3.6 27B?
Qwen3.6 27B, with 262K tokens against 200K.
How many benchmarks is the o4 Mini vs Qwen3.6 27B comparison based on?
18 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. o4 Mini'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.