Qwen3.6 27B vs Beam 1.0 501B A23B
Beam 1.0 501B A23B costs 2.3x less per output token than Qwen3.6 27B ($1.20 vs $2.70 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; no benchmark has tested both models yet.
- Coding
- 36.8
- Overall
- 45.3
- Output $/M
- $2.70
- Coding
- No data
- Overall
- No data
- Output $/M
- $1.20
Qwen3.6 27B or Beam 1.0 501B A23B: which to pick
Only Qwen3.6 27B has a coding score, 36.8 on the Vibe Coding Index; Beam 1.0 501B A23B has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Beam 1.0 501B A23B for output tokens 2.3x cheaper ($1.20 vs $2.70 per million) and a larger context window (1.05M against 262K tokens).
No benchmark has tested both yet. Qwen3.6 27B has results on AA Coding Index, SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) and Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI); Beam 1.0 501B A23B on LMArena WebDev, LMArena Text: coding and LMArena Text: software and IT. Compare them on price and context instead.
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
No call
Only Qwen3.6 27B has a AA Intelligence Index result, 21.4.
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 Beam 1.0 501B A23B has a Design Arena: websites result, 1245.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Beam 1.0 501B A23B
Beam 1.0 501B A23B takes 1.05M tokens against 262K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Beam 1.0 501B A23B
Qwen3.6 27B $0.0018, Beam 1.0 501B A23B $0.0010 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
- Qwen3.6 27B 36.8 from 2 benchmarks, Beam 1.0 501B A23B not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- None yet: no category has been tested on both models.
- Widest single gap
- None yet: no benchmark has tested both models.
- Output price
- Qwen3.6 27B $2.70 against Beam 1.0 501B A23B $1.20 per million output tokens, 2.3x apart.
- Context window
- Qwen3.6 27B takes 262K tokens, Beam 1.0 501B A23B 1.05M.
Benchmark by benchmark
Every board either model has a result on, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale. Only one model is measured on each, so no row names a leader.
CodingDirectional onlySix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index10 boards measured
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Beam 1.0 501B A23B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | Not measured | 1437 | Only Beam 1.0 501B A23B measured |
| AA Coding Index | 53.7 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 70.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 11.9% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| SciCode | 42.8% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 34.8% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | Not measured | 1473 | Only Beam 1.0 501B A23B measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | Not measured | 1461 | Only Beam 1.0 501B A23B measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | Not measured | 1443 | Only Beam 1.0 501B A23B measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | Not measured | 1436 | Only Beam 1.0 501B A23B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 33 boards here | |||
IntelligenceDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index2 boards measured
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Beam 1.0 501B A23B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 21.4 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 146.2 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index2 boards measured
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Beam 1.0 501B A23B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 18.5 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 94.2% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 40 boards here | |||
ReasoningDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards measured
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Beam 1.0 501B A23B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 84.2% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 23.1% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 85.9% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 7.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | Not measured | 1442 | Only Beam 1.0 501B A23B measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | Not measured | 1447 | Only Beam 1.0 501B A23B measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | Not measured | 1451 | Only Beam 1.0 501B A23B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index4 boards measured
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Beam 1.0 501B A23B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | 91.1% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 35.1% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| LMArena Text: math | Not measured | 1459 | Only Beam 1.0 501B A23B measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | Not measured | 1475 | Only Beam 1.0 501B A23B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index8 boards measured
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Beam 1.0 501B A23B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 53.2% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 62.3% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 71.3% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 68.3% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| LMArena Text: science | Not measured | 1430 | Only Beam 1.0 501B A23B measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | Not measured | 1376 | Only Beam 1.0 501B A23B measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | Not measured | 1433 | Only Beam 1.0 501B A23B measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | Not measured | 1430 | Only Beam 1.0 501B A23B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 12 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index2 boards measured
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Beam 1.0 501B A23B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | Not measured | 1245 | Only Beam 1.0 501B A23B measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | Not measured | 1220 | Only Beam 1.0 501B A23B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
GeneralDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index18 boards measured
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Beam 1.0 501B A23B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 45.6% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| IFBench | 67.6% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 77.3% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| DTBench | 78.1% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| LMCA | 34.5% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| LMArena Text | Not measured | 1425 | Only Beam 1.0 501B A23B measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | Not measured | 1430 | Only Beam 1.0 501B A23B measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | Not measured | 1390 | Only Beam 1.0 501B A23B measured |
| LMArena Text: English | Not measured | 1436 | Only Beam 1.0 501B A23B measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | Not measured | 1413 | Only Beam 1.0 501B A23B measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | Not measured | 1424 | Only Beam 1.0 501B A23B measured |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1461 | Only Beam 1.0 501B A23B measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | Not measured | 1412 | Only Beam 1.0 501B A23B measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | Not measured | 1414 | Only Beam 1.0 501B A23B measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | Not measured | 1429 | Only Beam 1.0 501B A23B measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | Not measured | 1400 | Only Beam 1.0 501B A23B measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | Not measured | 1399 | Only Beam 1.0 501B A23B measured |
| EQ-Bench 4 | 1026 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.6 27B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 30 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
Beam 1.0 501B A23B costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Beam 1.0 501B A23B costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Beam 1.0 501B A23B 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 | Qwen3.6 27B | Reflection Beam 1.0 501B A23B |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Qwen | Reflection |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | April 27, 2026 | October 16, 2026 |
| Context window | 262K | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.45 | $0.40 |
| Output $/Mtok | $2.70 | $1.20 |
| Coding index | 36.8 | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 2 | 1 |
| Cost per solved task | $1.30 | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Qwen3.6 27B better than Beam 1.0 501B A23B for coding?
Only Qwen3.6 27B has a coding score, 36.8 on the Vibe Coding Index; Beam 1.0 501B A23B has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Beam 1.0 501B A23B for output tokens 2.3x cheaper ($1.20 vs $2.70 per million) and a larger context window (1.05M against 262K tokens).
Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6 27B or Beam 1.0 501B A23B?
Qwen3.6 27B costs $0.45 per million input tokens and $2.70 per million output tokens; Beam 1.0 501B A23B costs $0.40 and $1.20. Cost per solved task is known for Qwen3.6 27B only.
Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3.6 27B or Beam 1.0 501B A23B?
Beam 1.0 501B A23B, with 1.05M tokens against 262K.
Has any benchmark tested both Qwen3.6 27B and Beam 1.0 501B A23B?
No benchmark has tested both yet. Qwen3.6 27B has results on AA Coding Index, SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) and Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI); Beam 1.0 501B A23B on LMArena WebDev, LMArena Text: coding and LMArena Text: software and IT. Compare them on price and context instead. Data as of October 22, 2026.