AI model comparison
Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs o4 Mini
Pricing, context window, benchmarks, and features compared side by side. Or skip the guesswork and send one prompt to both.
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B is an open-weight multimodal model from Alibaba Cloud with 35 billion total parameters and 3 billion active parameters per token.
- Input / 1M
- $0.15
- Output / 1M
- $1
- Context
- 262K
OpenAI o4-mini is a compact reasoning model in the o-series, optimized for fast, cost-efficient performance while retaining strong multimodal and agentic capabilities.
- Input / 1M
- $1.10
- Output / 1M
- $4.40
- Context
- 200K
Comparing image generators? Compare image models
At a glance
Quick verdict
How the two models stack up on the things people ask about most.
Lower price
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
5.5x cheaper for a typical chat
Higher intelligence score
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
18.2 vs 16.7 on Artificial Analysis
Larger context window
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
262K vs 200K tokens
Newer release
Qwen3.6 35B A3B
Released April 27, 2026
Benchmarks
Benchmark scores
Independent scores from Artificial Analysis. Higher is better.
Intelligence index
Qwen3.6 35B A3B18.2
o4 Mini16.7Coding index
Qwen3.6 35B A3B41.9o4 MiniNot availableAgentic index
Qwen3.6 35B A3B13.1o4 MiniNot availablePricing
Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs o4 Mini API pricing
Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.
| Metric | Qwen3.6 35B A3B | o4 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| Input tokensPer 1M tokens | $0.15 | $1.10 |
| Output tokensPer 1M tokens | $1 | $4.40 |
| Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens | $0.05 | $0.28 |
| Cache writePer 1M tokens | Not available | Not available |
| Web searchPer request | Not available | $0.01 |
What it costs in practice
Estimated cost per 1,000 requests at standard rates. Coding and long-document figures also show the cost when the input is already cached.
Chat message
2K in, 500 out
Qwen3.6 35B A3B$0.80o4 Mini$4.40Coding task
30K in, 4K out
Qwen3.6 35B A3B$8.50$5.50 cachedo4 Mini$50.60$25.85 cachedLong document summary
150K in, 2K out
Qwen3.6 35B A3B$24.50$9.50 cachedo4 Mini$173.80$50.05 cachedSpecs
Context window and capabilities
How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.
| Metric | Qwen3.6 35B A3B | o4 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 262K tokens | 200K tokens |
| Max output | 236K tokens | 100K tokens |
| Input types | Image, Text, Video | File, Image, Text |
| Output types | Text | Text |
| Reasoning effort levels | Not available | Not available |
| Default reasoning effort | Not available | Not available |
| Release date | April 27, 2026 | April 16, 2025 |
Features
Supported features
API features available for each model.
| Metric | Qwen3.6 35B A3B | o4 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| Tool calling | Supported | Supported |
| Structured outputs | Supported | Supported |
| JSON mode | Supported | Supported |
| Reasoning | Supported | Supported |
| Temperature | Supported | Not supported |
| Stop sequences | Supported | Not supported |
| Deterministic seed | Supported | Supported |
| Verbosity control | Not supported | Not supported |
Keep exploring
More on these models
Other head-to-heads, the full model page, and the alternatives list for each model.
Qwen3.6 35B A3BView full model details- Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs Qwen3.8 Flash
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs MiMo-V2.5
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs Gemini 2.5 Flash
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs Gemma 4 26B A4B
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs DeepSeek V3.2
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs Claude Haiku 4.5
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs GPT-5 Mini
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs Ling 3.0 Flash
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs GPT-5.4 Nano
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs Qwen3.7 Plus
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs DeepSeek V3.1
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs Qwen3.5 397B A17B
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs GLM 4.6
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs Qwen3.6 27B
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs MiniMax M2.5
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs DeepSeek V3.2 Exp
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs Qwen3.5-35B-A3B
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs Step 3.7 Flash
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs Muse Glimmer 30B
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs Qwen3.5-122B-A10B
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs MiniMax M2.1
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs LongCat 2.0
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs MiniMax M2
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs Step 3.5 Flash
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs Kimi K2 0905
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking
Our take
Qwen3.6 35B A3B is 5.5x cheaper for a typical chat. Qwen3.6 35B A3B scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (18.2 vs 16.7). Qwen3.6 35B A3B has the larger context window (262K vs 200K tokens). The right pick depends on your workload, so the quickest way to settle it is to send the same prompt to both and compare.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is Qwen3.6 35B A3B or o4 Mini cheaper?
Qwen3.6 35B A3B is cheaper for a typical chat (2K input tokens and 500 output tokens). Qwen3.6 35B A3B costs $0.15 per 1M input tokens and $1 per 1M output tokens, while o4 Mini costs $1.10 per 1M input tokens and $4.40 per 1M output tokens.
Which has a bigger context window, Qwen3.6 35B A3B or o4 Mini?
Qwen3.6 35B A3B supports up to 262K tokens of context, compared with 200K for o4 Mini.
Is Qwen3.6 35B A3B smarter than o4 Mini?
On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Qwen3.6 35B A3B scores 18.2 and o4 Mini scores 16.7, putting Qwen3.6 35B A3B ahead. Benchmarks don't capture everything, so the best test is running your own prompts through both.
Can I use Qwen3.6 35B A3B and o4 Mini at the same time?
Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to multiple models at once, so you can see Qwen3.6 35B A3B and o4 Mini answer side by side and keep the better response.
Why choose? Ask both.
Send one prompt to Qwen3.6 35B A3B and o4 Mini at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.