Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Qwen3-Max
Side-by-side comparison of API pricing, specs, benchmarks, and capabilities
Gemini 3.6 Flash is 37.5% cheaper on blended cost ($1.50 vs $2.40/Mtok)
| Specification |
Gemini 3.6 FlashIntro price
by Google
|
by Alibaba
|
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Status | Current flagship | Current flagship |
| Released | Jul 21, 2026 | Jan 1, 2026 |
| Pricing per million tokens | ||
| Input | $0.750/Mtok | $1.20/Mtok |
| Output | $3.75/Mtok | $6.00/Mtok |
| Blended avg | $1.50/Mtok | $2.40/Mtok |
| Cached input | $0.075/Mtok | — |
| Specifications | ||
| Context window | 1M tokens | 262K tokens |
| Parameters | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Speed (TPS) | — | — |
| Modalities | ||
| Input |
textimageaudiovideo
|
text
|
| Benchmarks sources: Artificial Analysis / Alibaba model card | ||
| Independent composite scores measured for both models — each on its own scale | ||
| LMSYS Chatbot Arena | 1484 ELO | 1434.3 ELO |
| AA Intelligence Index | 51.6 | — |
| AA Agentic Index | 40.5 | — |
| AA-Omniscience Index (−100–100) | 22.1 | — |
| GDPval-AA v2 | 1422.3 ELO | — |
| Per-benchmark results published for Qwen3-Max only — no independent per-benchmark scores exist for Gemini 3.6 Flash yet | ||
| GPQA Diamond | — | 70 vendor |
| SWE-Bench Verified | — | 48 vendor |
| Humanity's Last Exam | — | 25 vendor |
| ARC-AGI 2 | — | 28 vendor |
| AIME 2025 | — | 72 vendor |
| MMMLU | — | 80 vendor |
| BFCL | — | 70 vendor |
| HumanEval | — | 86 vendor |
| MATH 500 | — | 78 vendor |
| Providers | ||
| Available from |
Google — $0.750/$3.75/Mtok
|
Alibaba — $1.20/$6.00/Mtok
|
Cost at scale
1M tokens · 50/50 input/output| Volume | Gemini 3.6 Flash | Qwen3-Max | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1M tokens | $1.5 | $2.4 | $0.9 (37.5%) |
| 10M tokens | $15 | $24 | $9 (37.5%) |
| 100M tokens | $150 | $240 | $90 (37.5%) |
| 1000M tokens | $1500 | $2400 | $900 (37.5%) |
When to pick which
distilled from the pricing and spec data above
Pick Gemini 3.6 Flash if…
- cost dominates: $1.50/Mtok blended vs $2.40 — 37.5% less on the same 50/50 token mix
- your workload re-reads context (agents, RAG, long chats): cached input costs $0.075/Mtok — 90% off its list input price, a discount Qwen3-Max doesn't offer
- you need the longer context: 1M tokens vs 262K (3.8×)
Pick Qwen3-Max if…
- this pairing gives Qwen3-Max no edge on price, context, cache discount, or measured performance — pick it only for qualitative fit (ecosystem, compliance, model behavior on your prompts)
Price movement
recorded changes since we began tracking each model · last checked Aug 13, 2026| Model | Changes | Latest move | Old → new $/M |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini 3.6 Flash | 1 | price cut on Aug 13, 2026 | $1.5/$7.5 → $0.75/$3.75/Mtok |
| Qwen3-Max | 0 | — no move | Stable since we began tracking — no change recorded |
Only Gemini 3.6 Flash has changed price since we began tracking; Qwen3-Max has held steady.
See all recent price moves →
MODELPRICEWATCH.COM · 2026-08-13
Try Gemini 3.6 Flash on Google
The cheaper option here — Gemini 3.6 Flash costs $1.50/Mtok blended on Google.
Summary
Gemini 3.6 Flash by Google costs $0.750/Mtok input and $3.75/Mtok output, with a 1M-token context window. It supports text, image, audio, video input.
Qwen3-Max by Alibaba costs $1.20/Mtok input and $6.00/Mtok output, with a 262K-token context window. It supports text input.
On a blended cost basis, Gemini 3.6 Flash is 37.5% cheaper than Qwen3-Max.It also has a larger context window.
Note: Pricing is per million tokens. Actual costs vary with usage patterns, prompt caching, and batch discounts. Always verify against official provider pricing pages.
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