Qwen3.6 Plus vs Qwen3.8 Max Preview
Wins 0 of 8 areas
—
Wins 8 of 8 areas
Coding · Agents · Reasoning · Facts · Images and charts · Math · Long documents · Following instructions
Qwen3.8 Max Preview is the stronger all-rounder.Qwen3.6 Plus is cheaper.
Scores updated · 36 tests both models report · How we compare
Where each one wins
Tests won in each of the eight areas we test. Each piece is one test, so a longer bar means more evidence; grey means the two scored within a point of each other.
- CodingWriting and fixing software15Qwen3.8 Max Preview5 of 6 tests
- ReasoningHard problems that need careful thinking04Qwen3.8 Max Preview4 of 4 tests
- AgentsCarrying out multi-step tasks on its own03Qwen3.8 Max Preview3 of 3 tests
- FactsGetting facts right instead of making them up03Qwen3.8 Max Preview3 of 3 tests
- MathCompetition and research-level math02Qwen3.8 Max Preview2 of 2 tests
- Long documentsFinding answers in very long texts02Qwen3.8 Max Preview2 of 2 tests
- Following instructionsDoing exactly what it is asked02Qwen3.8 Max Preview2 of 2 tests
- Images and chartsUnderstanding pictures, charts and video01Qwen3.8 Max Preview1 of 1 test
Images and charts rests on a single test.
What it costs
Prices per million tokens, roughly 750,000 words. The bars show the cost of a million tokens read plus a million written.
Qwen3.6 Plus costs 56% less for the same work.
The biggest differences
The tests each model wins by the widest margin, up to three each. Scores are out of 100.
Where Qwen3.8 Max Preview pulls ahead
- Unpublished advanced math problemsFrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2)+36.4points ahead
- Real work tasks from 44 professionsGDPVal+33.8points ahead
- Command-line tasks in a real terminalTerminal-Bench 2.1+27.4points ahead
Where Qwen3.6 Plus pulls ahead
- Programming problems, refreshed regularlyLiveBench · Coding+5.3points ahead
Every test, side by side
All 36 tests both models report. The winning score is in its model's colour; marks a score checked independently.
CodingQwen3.8 Max Preview
- Terminal-Bench 2.1Qwen3.8 Max Preview by 27.461.488.8+27.4
- LiveBench · Agentic CodingQwen3.8 Max Preview by 23.341.464.7+23.3
- LMArena · WebDevQwen3.8 Max Preview by 210 rating points14621672+210 rating
- SciCodeQwen3.8 Max Preview by 11.440.752.1+11.4
- SWE-bench ProQwen3.8 Max Preview by 11.156.667.7+11.1
- LiveBench · CodingQwen3.6 Plus by 5.378.272.9+5.3
AgentsQwen3.8 Max Preview
- GDPValQwen3.8 Max Preview by 33.824.558.3+33.8
- τ-Bench V3 · BankingQwen3.8 Max Preview by 2720.847.8+27
- OSWorld-VerifiedQwen3.8 Max Preview by 23.662.586.1+23.6
ReasoningQwen3.8 Max Preview
- Humanity's Last ExamQwen3.8 Max Preview by 15.327.843.1+15.3
- CritPtQwen3.8 Max Preview by 14.82.917.7+14.8
- LiveBench · ReasoningQwen3.8 Max Preview by 12.475.888.2+12.4
- GPQA DiamondQwen3.8 Max Preview by 4.688.292.8+4.6
FactsQwen3.8 Max Preview
- AA-Omniscience · Non-hallucinationQwen3.8 Max Preview by 5.865.471.2+5.8
- AA-Omniscience · AccuracyQwen3.8 Max Preview by 5.326.431.7+5.3
- SimpleQA VerifiedQwen3.8 Max Preview by 3.244.147.3+3.2
Images and chartsQwen3.8 Max Preview
- MMMU-ProQwen3.8 Max Preview by 4.87882.8+4.8
MathQwen3.8 Max Preview
- FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2)Qwen3.8 Max Preview by 36.438.374.7+36.4
- LiveBench · MathematicsQwen3.8 Max Preview by 7.683.791.3+7.6
Long documentsQwen3.8 Max Preview
- LongBench v2Qwen3.8 Max Preview by 4.36266.3+4.3
- AA-LCRQwen3.8 Max Preview by 278.380.3+2
Following instructionsQwen3.8 Max Preview
- LiveBench · Instruction FollowingQwen3.8 Max Preview by 15.858.374.1+15.8
- IFBenchQwen3.8 Max Preview by 7.675.282.8+7.6
Other results13 tests, not counted
Tests outside the eight areas. They are not counted above: several are summary scores built from other tests, or the same test under another name.
- ToolathlonQwen3.8 Max Preview by 32.739.872.5+32.7
- AA Agentic IndexQwen3.8 Max Preview by 20.62949.6+20.6
- AA IntelligenceQwen3.8 Max Preview by 18.42745.4+18.4
- NL2RepoQwen3.8 Max Preview by 1837.955.9+18
- Artificial Analysis Coding IndexQwen3.8 Max Preview by 17.354.571.8+17.3
- ScreenSpot-Pro (No tools)Qwen3.8 Max Preview by 16.368.284.5+16.3
- ERQAQwen3.8 Max Preview by 12.165.777.8+12.1
- AA-OmniscienceQwen3.8 Max Preview by 11.10.912+11.1
- livebench_data_analysisQwen3.8 Max Preview by 8.569.978.4+8.5
- WideSearchQwen3.8 Max Preview by 7.674.381.9+7.6
- HLE (with tools)Qwen3.8 Max Preview by 5.650.656.2+5.6
- livebench_languageQwen3.8 Max Preview by 4.77579.7+4.7
- RealWorldQAQwen3.8 Max Preview by 2.685.488+2.6
Questions people ask
Which is better, Qwen3.6 Plus or Qwen3.8 Max Preview?
Qwen3.8 Max Preview wins all eight areas we test: coding, agents, reasoning, facts, images and charts, math, long documents and following instructions. Qwen3.6 Plus wins none, but costs 56% less.
Which is better for coding?
Qwen3.8 Max Preview. It wins 5 of the 6 coding tests both models report; Qwen3.6 Plus wins 1.
Which is cheaper?
Qwen3.6 Plus costs $0.50 per million input tokens and $3.00 per million output tokens; Qwen3.8 Max Preview costs $2.00 and $6.00. That makes Qwen3.6 Plus about 56% cheaper for the same work.
How do you compare the two?
We use the 36 benchmark tests both models have published scores on. The verdict counts the 23 tests in the eight capability areas, and a gap under one point (ten on rating-style scales) counts as a tie. The other 13 are listed but not counted, because several are summary scores or repeat a test. Each score is the one shown on the model's own page.