Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 vs Qwen3.6 Plus
Qwen3.6 Plus leads Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 on coding, 44.1 to 39.5 on the Vibe Coding Index, at about the same output price ($1.95 vs $1.80 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 23 benchmarks have a result for both.
Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 or Qwen3.6 Plus: which to pick
Pick Qwen3.6 Plus for coding: it scores 44.1 on the Vibe Coding Index against 39.5 for Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20.
Pick Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 for output tokens 1.1x cheaper ($1.80 vs $1.95 per million) and work measured by Mystery game puzzles or LegalBench (Vals AI), where it leads.
- Shared results
- 23
- Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 only
- 2
- Qwen3.6 Plus only
- 60
- 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
Qwen3.6 Plus
Qwen3.6 Plus scores 44.1 against 39.5.
2 and 3 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
No call
Only Qwen3.6 Plus has a AA Intelligence Index result, 27.0.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Tied at 87.4%.
Same board, both measured
Math
AIME
Qwen3.6 Plus
Qwen3.6 Plus leads, 94.6% against 86.0%.
Same board, both measured
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
Qwen3.6 Plus
Qwen3.6 Plus leads, 87.7% against 87.2%.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Qwen3.6 Plus has a Design Arena: websites result, 1243.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
No call
Both take 1M tokens.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20
Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 $0.0012, Qwen3.6 Plus $0.0013 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
Qwen3.6 Plus
Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 $1.35, Qwen3.6 Plus $1.19.
Published attempt cost and pass rate
At a glance
- Coding index
- Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 39.5 from 2 benchmarks, Qwen3.6 Plus 44.1 from 3 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 32.0 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- MMMU Pro (Vals AI): Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 22.8% against Qwen3.6 Plus 84.2%, 61.4 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 $1.80 against Qwen3.6 Plus $1.95 per million output tokens, 1.1x apart.
- Context window
- Both take 1M tokens.
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 | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 | Bars | Qwen3.6 Plus | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 4 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 1 | 3 | 1 tie | |
| Math | 0 | 2 | ||
| Knowledge | 3 | 3 | ||
| General | 1 | 3 | ||
| All shared boards | 5 | 17 | 1 tie |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index04
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 | Qwen3.6 Plus | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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) | 85.3% | 86.0% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 71.2% | 73.4% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 15.7% | 25.6% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | Not measured | 11.1% | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 53.2% | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 43.9% | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| ALE-Bench | 608.9 | 670.1 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| 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 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 28 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 | Qwen3.6 Plus | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | Not measured | 27.0 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 146.2 | 147.3 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 | Qwen3.6 Plus | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | Not measured | 40.9% | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 7.7% | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 14.9% | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 32.9% | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | Not measured | 97.7% | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $1 | $5,115 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| Neither model has a result on the other 36 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index13
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 | Qwen3.6 Plus | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 87.4% | 87.4% | Tie |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 22.8% | 84.2% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 88.2% | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 27.8% | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 84.8% | 88.4% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| Chess puzzles | 8.0% | 14.0% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| Mystery game puzzles | 17.0% | 12.0% | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 |
| 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 13 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 | Qwen3.6 Plus | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 86.0% | 94.6% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 86.7% | 93.3% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | Not measured | 38.2% | Only Qwen3.6 Plus 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 9 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index33
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 | Qwen3.6 Plus | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 87.2% | 87.7% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 85.1% | 84.2% | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 59.7% | 51.5% | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 65.3% | 61.9% | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | Not measured | 74.7% | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 60.8% | 68.0% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | 95.2% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | Not measured | 36.9% | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | 25.4% | 44.1% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| 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 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index8 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 | Qwen3.6 Plus | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | Not measured | 1243 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | Not measured | 1230 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | Not measured | 1211 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | Not measured | 1228 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | Not measured | 1202 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | Not measured | 1235 | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | Not measured | 1160 | 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 index13
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 | Qwen3.6 Plus | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 30.4% | 44.9% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | Not measured | 77.0% | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| Vals Multimodal Index | Not measured | 51.5% | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| IFBench | Not measured | 75.2% | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | Not measured | 78.3% | Only Qwen3.6 Plus measured |
| DTBench | 80.5% | 81.9% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| LMCA | 36.4% | 33.1% | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 |
| CL-bench | 19.8% | 20.3% | Qwen3.6 Plus |
| CL-bench Life | 12.4% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 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 22 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 | 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
Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 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 | Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Qwen | Qwen |
| Weights | No public weights listed | No public weights listed |
| Released | April 27, 2026 | April 2, 2026 |
| Context window | 1M | 1M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.30 | $0.325 |
| Output $/Mtok | $1.80 | $1.95 |
| Coding index | 39.5 | 44.1 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 2 | 3 |
| Cost per solved task | $1.35 | $1.19 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 better than Qwen3.6 Plus for coding?
Pick Qwen3.6 Plus for coding: it scores 44.1 on the Vibe Coding Index against 39.5 for Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20. Pick Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 for output tokens 1.1x cheaper ($1.80 vs $1.95 per million) and work measured by Mystery game puzzles or LegalBench (Vals AI), where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 or Qwen3.6 Plus?
Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 costs $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.80 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 Plus costs $0.325 and $1.95. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 costs $1.35 and Qwen3.6 Plus $1.19.
Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 or Qwen3.6 Plus?
Neither: both take 1M tokens.
How many benchmarks is the Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 vs Qwen3.6 Plus comparison based on?
23 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20'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.