Is Qwen3.6 35B A3B better than Qwen3.8 Max (0902)?

Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is more accurate: it answered 60 of 80 questions correctly (75.0%) against 30 of 80 (37.5%) for Qwen3.6 35B A3B. Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is more accurate; Qwen3.6 35B A3B is cheaper.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6 35B A3B or Qwen3.8 Max (0902)?

Qwen3.6 35B A3B is cheaper: $0.0037 per question as billed, against $0.011. List prices: Qwen3.6 35B A3B $0.1 in / $0.95 out, Qwen3.8 Max (0902) $2 in / $6 out per million tokens.

Which is faster, Qwen3.6 35B A3B or Qwen3.8 Max (0902)?

Qwen3.6 35B A3B is faster at 135 output tokens per second, against 46. Time to first token: 0.4 s for Qwen3.6 35B A3B, 1.2 s for Qwen3.8 Max (0902).

Which has the larger context window, Qwen3.6 35B A3B or Qwen3.8 Max (0902)?

Qwen3.8 Max (0902), with 1M tokens against 262k.

Head to head · tested 27 Oct 2026

Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs Qwen3.8 Max (0902): accuracy, speed and price

Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is more accurate; Qwen3.6 35B A3B is cheaper.

QwenQwen3.6 35B A3B37.5% score · #59$0.0037 per question135 tok/s

QwenQwen3.8 Max (0902)75.0% score · #15$0.011 per question46 tok/s

Verdict

Built from the measurements below

Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is more accurate: 75.0% against 37.5% on the same 80 questions, a 37.5-point gap that is statistically significant.
Qwen3.6 35B A3B is 3.0× cheaper per question as billed ($0.0037 vs $0.011), reasoning tokens included.
Qwen3.6 35B A3B generates text 2.9× faster: 135 tokens per second against 46.
Qwen3.6 35B A3B starts answering sooner: 0.4 s to the first token, against 1.2 s for Qwen3.8 Max (0902).
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) accepts more context: 1M tokens against 262k.

Which should you choose?

Choose Qwen3.6 35B A3B for the lower cost per correct answer ($0.0099 against $0.015), faster streaming, a quicker first token, open weights you can run yourself and more hosts to choose from on OpenRouter (10 against 1). Choose Qwen3.8 Max (0902) for the most accurate answers of the two, shorter outputs (about 1,722 tokens per question against 3,563) and a 1M-token context window. The widest subject gap is in science: Qwen3.8 Max (0902) answered 24 of 30 correctly, Qwen3.6 35B A3B 9 of 30. With so few questions per subject, treat this as a lead to test on your own prompts, not a result.

Accuracy gap -37.5 points (z = -4.78). A winner is called only when z is at least 1.96, the usual 95% threshold. Speed, latency and price need a 10% margin.

Head to head

Same questions, same prompt, same API

Measure	Qwen3.6 35B A3B	Qwen3.8 Max (0902)	Edge
Verification scoreHigher is better	37.5%	75.0%	Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Cost per questionLower is better	$0.0037	$0.011	Qwen3.6 35B A3B
Output speedHigher is better	135	46	Qwen3.6 35B A3B
Time to first tokenLower is better	0.4 s	1.2 s	Qwen3.6 35B A3B
End-to-end response timeLower is better	5.6 s	12.2 s	Qwen3.6 35B A3B
Tokens per questionLower is better	3,563	1,722	Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Context windowHigher is better	262k	1M	Qwen3.8 Max (0902)

Side by side

Bars are scaled to the larger of the two values. The winner on each measure is marked in bold.

Every measure

Qwen3.6 35B A3B first, Qwen3.8 Max (0902) second

Verification scorehigher is better

Qwen3.6 35B A3B37.5%

Qwen3.8 Max (0902)75.0%

Cost per questionlower is better

Qwen3.6 35B A3B$0.0037

Qwen3.8 Max (0902)$0.011

Output speedhigher is better

Qwen3.6 35B A3B135

Qwen3.8 Max (0902)46

Time to first tokenlower is better

Qwen3.6 35B A3B0.4 s

Qwen3.8 Max (0902)1.2 s

End-to-end response timelower is better

Qwen3.6 35B A3B5.6 s

Qwen3.8 Max (0902)12.2 s

Tokens per questionlower is better

Qwen3.6 35B A3B3,563

Qwen3.8 Max (0902)1,722

Context windowhigher is better

Qwen3.6 35B A3B262k

Qwen3.8 Max (0902)1M

Score vs. cost per question

Both models in color, every other model in grey

Results by subject and dataset

Questions answered correctly. Small samples: a gap of one or two questions is noise.

Subject	Questions	Qwen3.6 35B A3B	Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Science	30	9/30	24/30
Engineering	15	2/15	9/15
Medicine	11	6/11	6/11
Economics	9	5/9	8/9
Law	6	1/6	4/6
Humanities & social science	9	7/9	9/9
SuperGPQA dataset	50	9/50	32/50
MMLU-Pro dataset	30	21/30	28/30

Specifications and pricing

From OpenRouter's catalogue, plus the leaderboard's test dates

Specification	Qwen3.6 35B A3B	Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Creator	Qwen	Qwen
Released	27 Apr 2026	3 Sept 2026
Weights	Open weights	—
Reasoning	Yes	Yes
Input	text, image, video	text, image, video
Output	text	text
Context window	262k tokens	1M tokens
Knowledge cutoff	—	—
List price in / out per 1M	$0.1 / $0.95	$2 / $6
Blended price per 1M (3:1)	$0.31	$3.00
Cheapest host	Darkbloom · $0.05 / $0.7	Alibaba · $2 / $6
Hosts on OpenRouter	10	1
Last tested	26 Oct 2026	25 Oct 2026

Compare any two models →

Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs Qwen3.8 Max (0902): frequently asked questions

Is Qwen3.6 35B A3B better than Qwen3.8 Max (0902)?: Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is more accurate: it answered 60 of 80 questions correctly (75.0%) against 30 of 80 (37.5%) for Qwen3.6 35B A3B. Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is more accurate; Qwen3.6 35B A3B is cheaper.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6 35B A3B or Qwen3.8 Max (0902)?: Qwen3.6 35B A3B is cheaper: $0.0037 per question as billed, against $0.011. List prices: Qwen3.6 35B A3B $0.1 in / $0.95 out, Qwen3.8 Max (0902) $2 in / $6 out per million tokens.
Which is faster, Qwen3.6 35B A3B or Qwen3.8 Max (0902)?: Qwen3.6 35B A3B is faster at 135 output tokens per second, against 46. Time to first token: 0.4 s for Qwen3.6 35B A3B, 1.2 s for Qwen3.8 Max (0902).
Which has the larger context window, Qwen3.6 35B A3B or Qwen3.8 Max (0902)?: Qwen3.8 Max (0902), with 1M tokens against 262k.