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Qwen3 30B A3B vs Qwen3.6 Plus

Qwen3.6 Plus leads Qwen3 30B A3B on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 27.0 to 7.6, and Qwen3 30B A3B costs 3.9x less per output token ($0.50 vs $1.95 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 45 benchmarks have a result for both.

Replace Qwen3 30B A3B Replace Qwen3.6 Plus
Qwen3 30B A3BQwen
Coding
No data
Overall
38.2
Output $/M
$0.50
0
Qwen3.6 PlusQwen
Coding
44.1
Overall
56.2
Output $/M
$1.95
45
vs boards won of 45 shared

Qwen3 30B A3B or Qwen3.6 Plus: which to pick

Only Qwen3.6 Plus has a coding score, 44.1 on the Vibe Coding Index; Qwen3 30B A3B has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.

Pick Qwen3 30B A3B for output tokens 3.9x cheaper ($0.50 vs $1.95 per million).

Model AQwen3 30B A3BQwenNot benchmarkedNo coding benchmarkNo cost per solved taskModel BQwen3.6 PlusQwen44.1/1003 independent benchmarks$1.19 per solved task
Shared results
45
Qwen3 30B A3B only
7
Qwen3.6 Plus only
38
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.

At a glance

Coding index
Qwen3 30B A3B not benchmarked, Qwen3.6 Plus 44.1 from 3 benchmarks.
Widest category
Agentic work, 71.6 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
Widest single gap
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR): Qwen3 30B A3B 0.0% against Qwen3.6 Plus 78.3%, 78.3 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
Output price
Qwen3 30B A3B $0.50 against Qwen3.6 Plus $1.95 per million output tokens, 3.9x apart.
Context window
Qwen3 30B A3B takes 41K 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.

Boards won, where both have a result
CategoryQwen3 30B A3BBarsQwen3.6 PlusTies
Coding03
Intelligence02
Agentic work01
Reasoning06
Math03
Knowledge04
Web design05
General021
All shared boards045
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index03
Coding benchmarks for Qwen3 30B A3B and Qwen3.6 Plus
BenchmarkQwen3 30B A3BQwen3.6 PlusLeader
LMArena WebDevNot measured1461Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
AA Coding IndexNot measured54.5Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
LiveCodeBench (Vals AI)Not measured86.0%Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI)Not measured73.4%Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI)Not measured25.6%Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
Code migration (Vals AI)Not measured11.1%Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
ProgramBench (Vals AI)Not measured0.0%Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI)Not measured53.2%Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run)50.6%Not measuredOnly Qwen3 30B A3B measured
Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run)6.8%43.9%Qwen3.6 Plus
WeirdML29.8%Not measuredOnly Qwen3 30B A3B measured
ALE-BenchNot measured670.1Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
LMArena Text: coding13371467Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: software and IT13401462Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena WebDev: ReactNot measured1454Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
LMArena WebDev: HTMLNot measured1463Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
LMArena WebDev: from an imageNot measured1472Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
Neither model has a result on the other 22 boards here
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
Intelligence benchmarks for Qwen3 30B A3B and Qwen3.6 Plus
BenchmarkQwen3 30B A3BQwen3.6 PlusLeader
AA Intelligence Index7.627.0Qwen3.6 Plus
Epoch Capabilities Index137.3147.3Qwen3.6 Plus
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
Agentic work benchmarks for Qwen3 30B A3B and Qwen3.6 Plus
BenchmarkQwen3 30B A3BQwen3.6 PlusLeader
Finance Agent (Vals AI)Not measured40.9%Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI)Not measured7.7%Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
Legal Research Bench (Vals AI)Not measured14.9%Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI)Not measured32.9%Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
τ²-Bench Telecom26.0%97.7%Qwen3.6 Plus
Vending-Bench 2Not measured$5,115Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
Neither model has a result on the other 35 boards here
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index06
Reasoning benchmarks for Qwen3 30B A3B and Qwen3.6 Plus
BenchmarkQwen3 30B A3BQwen3.6 PlusLeader
GPQA DiamondNot measured87.4%Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
MMMU Pro (Vals AI)Not measured84.2%Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run)61.6%88.2%Qwen3.6 Plus
Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run)6.2%27.8%Qwen3.6 Plus
GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run)61.7%88.4%Qwen3.6 Plus
Chess puzzlesNot measured14.0%Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
Mystery game puzzlesNot measured12.0%Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
LMArena Text: hard prompts13141448Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: expert13141454Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: hard prompts in English13291455Qwen3.6 Plus
Neither model has a result on the other 12 boards here
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index03
Math benchmarks for Qwen3 30B A3B and Qwen3.6 Plus
BenchmarkQwen3 30B A3BQwen3.6 PlusLeader
AIMENot measured94.6%Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
AA Math Index72.3Not measuredOnly Qwen3 30B A3B measured
AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run)72.3%Not measuredOnly Qwen3 30B A3B measured
OTIS Mock AIME62.8%93.3%Qwen3.6 Plus
FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3Not measured38.2%Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
LMArena Text: math13551449Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: mathematical work13631448Qwen3.6 Plus
Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index04
Knowledge benchmarks for Qwen3 30B A3B and Qwen3.6 Plus
BenchmarkQwen3 30B A3BQwen3.6 PlusLeader
MMLU ProNot measured87.7%Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
LegalBench (Vals AI)Not measured84.2%Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
CaseLaw (Vals AI)Not measured51.5%Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
CorpFin (Vals AI)Not measured61.9%Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
TaxEval (Vals AI)Not measured74.7%Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
MortgageTax (Vals AI)Not measured68.0%Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
MedCode (Vals AI)Not measured36.9%Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run)77.7%Not measuredOnly Qwen3 30B A3B measured
SimpleQA VerifiedNot measured44.1%Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
LMArena Text: science13211439Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare13181442Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: legal and government13141437Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: business and finance13091430Qwen3.6 Plus
Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index05
Web design benchmarks for Qwen3 30B A3B and Qwen3.6 Plus
BenchmarkQwen3 30B A3BQwen3.6 PlusLeader
Design Arena: websites9541243Qwen3.6 Plus
Design Arena: UI components9431230Qwen3.6 Plus
Design Arena: game dev8981211Qwen3.6 Plus
Design Arena: data viz9671228Qwen3.6 Plus
Design Arena: 3DNot measured1202Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
Design Arena: all code categories9411236Qwen3.6 Plus
Design Arena: SVGNot measured1161Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
Design Arena: ASCII artNot measured1113Only 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 index021
General benchmarks for Qwen3 30B A3B and Qwen3.6 Plus
BenchmarkQwen3 30B A3BQwen3.6 PlusLeader
SAGE (Vals AI)Not measured44.9%Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
MedScribe (Vals AI)Not measured77.0%Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
Vals Multimodal IndexNot measured51.5%Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
IFBench41.5%75.2%Qwen3.6 Plus
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR)0.0%78.3%Qwen3.6 Plus
DTBench60.3%81.9%Qwen3.6 Plus
LMCA15.8%33.1%Qwen3.6 Plus
Fiction.LiveBench40.6%Not measuredOnly Qwen3 30B A3B measured
Creative writing (Lech Mazur)75.3%Not measuredOnly Qwen3 30B A3B measured
CL-benchNot measured20.3%Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured
LMArena Text13171436Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: instruction following12831424Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: creative writing12711404Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: English13351445Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: non-English12951424Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: Chinese13471477Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: German13071451Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: Japanese12541390Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: Korean12611379Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: French13521455Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: Spanish13171432Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: Russian12911434Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: Polish12991433Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: multi-turn13071438Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: longer queries13121439Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: writing and language12901418Qwen3.6 Plus
LMArena Text: entertainment and media12581402Qwen3.6 Plus
Neither model has a result on the other 19 boards here
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
Image generation benchmarks for Qwen3 30B A3B and Qwen3.6 Plus
BenchmarkQwen3 30B A3BQwen3.6 PlusLeader
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 30B A3B$0.0004Fits in one request
Qwen3.6 Plus$0.0013Fits in one request

Qwen3 30B A3B costs less

Repository review

50K input + 3K output tokens

Qwen3 30B A3B$0.0075Exceeds the context window
Qwen3.6 Plus$0.022Fits in one request

Qwen3 30B A3B costs less

Agent loop

200K input + 10K output tokens

Qwen3 30B A3B$0.029Exceeds the context window
Qwen3.6 Plus$0.085Fits in one request

Qwen3 30B A3B 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.

Specifications of Qwen3 30B A3B and Qwen3.6 Plus
SpecificationQwen3 30B A3BQwen3.6 Plus
MakerQwenQwen
WeightsOpen weightsNo public weights listed
ReleasedApril 28, 2025April 2, 2026
Context window41K1M
Input $/Mtok$0.12$0.325
Output $/Mtok$0.50$1.95
Coding indexNot benchmarked44.1
Independent measurements behind it03
Cost per solved taskNot computable$1.19
SourceOpenRouter listingOpenRouter listing

Questions

Is Qwen3 30B A3B better than Qwen3.6 Plus for coding?

Only Qwen3.6 Plus has a coding score, 44.1 on the Vibe Coding Index; Qwen3 30B A3B has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Qwen3 30B A3B for output tokens 3.9x cheaper ($0.50 vs $1.95 per million).

Which is cheaper, Qwen3 30B A3B or Qwen3.6 Plus?

Qwen3 30B A3B costs $0.12 per million input tokens and $0.50 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 Plus costs $0.325 and $1.95. Cost per solved task is known for Qwen3.6 Plus only.

Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3 30B A3B or Qwen3.6 Plus?

Qwen3.6 Plus, with 1M tokens against 41K.

How many benchmarks is the Qwen3 30B A3B vs Qwen3.6 Plus comparison based on?

45 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Qwen3 30B A3B's coding index rests on 0 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.

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