Model comparison
DeepSeek V3 vs Qwen3.6 Plus
Head-to-head evidence from 21 shared benchmark results across 7 categories. Overall scores shown here use the public BenchAlign v5 ranking lane.
Public leaderboard positions: DeepSeek V3 #147 (Supported); Qwen3.6 Plus #30 (Supported). Intervals and evidence labels describe ranking uncertainty, not a guarantee for a specific workload.
Evidence parity. DeepSeek V3 and Qwen3.6 Plus share 21 comparable benchmark results. 4 of 8 categories are comparable. 1 result is unique to DeepSeek V3; 39 to Qwen3.6 Plus.
Updated July 23, 2026- Shared results
- 21
- DeepSeek V3 only
- 1
- Qwen3.6 Plus only
- 39
- Comparable categories
- 4 / 8
Pick Qwen3.6 Plus if you want the stronger benchmark profile. DeepSeek V3 only becomes the better choice if knowledge is the priority or you would rather avoid the extra latency and token burn of a reasoning model.
Confidence note. This is a partial-evidence comparison with 21 shared benchmark results across 7 evidence categories; 4 of 8 categories currently have scoreable aggregates for both models. Treat the verdict as directional until coverage is more balanced.
Why this result
Qwen3.6 Plus is clearly ahead on the BenchAlign aggregate, 65.2 to 44.97. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.
Qwen3.6 Plus's sharpest advantage is in mathematics, where it averages 60.5 against 1.7. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is SWE-bench Verified, 42% to 78.8%. DeepSeek V3 does hit back in knowledge, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.
Qwen3.6 Plus is the reasoning model in the pair, while DeepSeek V3 is not. That usually helps on harder chain-of-thought-heavy tests, but it can also mean more latency and more token spend in real use. Qwen3.6 Plus gives you the larger context window at 1M, compared with 128K for DeepSeek V3.
Category breakdown
Exact category averages are shown below. Not measured means BenchLM does not have enough sourced public coverage for that model and category.
| Category | DeepSeek V3 | Δ | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Math | DeepSeek V31.7 | Margin→ 58.8 | Qwen3.6 Plus60.5 |
| Coding | DeepSeek V338.9 | Margin→ 31.4 | Qwen3.6 Plus70.3 |
| Knowledge | DeepSeek V372.7 | Margin← 15.6 | Qwen3.6 Plus57.1 |
| Inst. Following | DeepSeek V386.1 | Margin← 3.8 | Qwen3.6 Plus82.3 |
| Agentic | DeepSeek V3Not measured | MarginNo overlap | Qwen3.6 Plus61.6 |
| Reasoning | DeepSeek V3Not measured | MarginNo overlap | Qwen3.6 Plus62.0 |
| Multilingual | DeepSeek V3Not measured | MarginNo overlap | Qwen3.6 Plus84.7 |
| Multimodal | DeepSeek V3Not measured | MarginNo overlap | Qwen3.6 Plus79.8 |
Decisive benchmark drivers
The largest measured benchmark gaps in this matchup, with exact reported values.
More
- Source ↗
SWE-bench Verified
CodingA 42%B 78.8%Winner: Qwen3.6 PlusΔ 36.8SWE-bench Verified: DeepSeek V3 scored 42%; Qwen3.6 Plus scored 78.8%. Qwen3.6 Plus wins this benchmark. - Source ↗
GPQA
KnowledgeA 59.1%B 90.4%Winner: Qwen3.6 PlusΔ 31.3GPQA: DeepSeek V3 scored 59.1%; Qwen3.6 Plus scored 90.4%. Qwen3.6 Plus wins this benchmark. - Source ↗
FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3)
MathA 1.724%B 26.207%Winner: Qwen3.6 PlusΔ 24.5FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3): DeepSeek V3 scored 1.724%; Qwen3.6 Plus scored 26.207%. Qwen3.6 Plus wins this benchmark. - Source ↗
MMLU-Pro
KnowledgeA 75.9%B 88.5%Winner: Qwen3.6 PlusΔ 12.6MMLU-Pro: DeepSeek V3 scored 75.9%; Qwen3.6 Plus scored 88.5%. Qwen3.6 Plus wins this benchmark. - Source ↗
IFEval
Inst. FollowingA 86.1%B 94.3%Winner: Qwen3.6 PlusΔ 8.2IFEval: DeepSeek V3 scored 86.1%; Qwen3.6 Plus scored 94.3%. Qwen3.6 Plus wins this benchmark.
Operational comparison
Runtime and commercial metrics are compared only when both models have a complete sourced value.
| Metric | DeepSeek V3 | Qwen3.6 Plus | Comparison |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input / output priceUSD per 1M tokens | DeepSeek V3$0.27 input / $1.1 output | Qwen3.6 PlusNot available | A complete price comparison is not available. |
| Generation speedtokens per second | DeepSeek V3Not available | Qwen3.6 PlusNot available | A complete speed comparison is not available. |
| First-answer latencyseconds to first token | DeepSeek V3Not available | Qwen3.6 PlusNot available | A complete latency comparison is not available. |
| Context windowmaximum listed tokens | DeepSeek V3128K | Qwen3.6 Plus1M | Qwen3.6 Plus lists the larger context window. |
Benchmark Deep Dive
Agentic16 benchmarks
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 | Qwen3.6 Plus | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic IndexSource | 1.6% | 27.6% | Qwen3.6 Plus leads |
| τ²-bench resultsSource | 22.8% | 97.7% | Qwen3.6 Plus leads |
| GDPval-AASource | 0.0% | 31.8% | Qwen3.6 Plus leads |
| GDPval-AASource | 217 | 1135 | Qwen3.6 Plus leads |
| Terminal-Bench 2.0Source | — | 61.6% | Not comparable |
| Claw-EvalSource | — | 58.8% | Not comparable |
| QwenClawBenchSource | — | 57.2% | Not comparable |
| τ³-bench resultsSource | — | 70.7% | Not comparable |
| VITA-BenchSource | — | 44.3% | Not comparable |
| DeepPlanningSource | — | 41.5% | Not comparable |
| ToolathlonSource | — | 39.8% | Not comparable |
| MCP AtlasSource | — | 48.2% | Not comparable |
| MCP-TasksSource | — | 74.1% | Not comparable |
| WideResearchSource | — | 74.3% | Not comparable |
| Gert LabsSource | — | 50.60% | Not comparable |
| ResearchClawBenchSource | — | 18.0% | Not comparable |
CodingQwen3.6 Plus wins8 benchmarks
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 | Qwen3.6 Plus | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveCodeBenchSource | 37.6% | — | Not comparable |
| SWE-bench VerifiedSource | 42% | 78.8% | Qwen3.6 Plus leads |
| AA Coding IndexSource | 23.0% | 54.5% | Qwen3.6 Plus leads |
| AA-SciCodeSource | 35.4% | 40.7% | Qwen3.6 Plus leads |
| SWE-bench ProSource | — | 56.6% | Not comparable |
| SWE MultilingualSource | — | 73.8% | Not comparable |
| LiveCodeBench v6Source | — | 87.1% | Not comparable |
| Vibe Code BenchSource | — | 25.56% | Not comparable |
Reasoning4 benchmarks
KnowledgeDeepSeek V3 wins12 benchmarks
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 | Qwen3.6 Plus | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQASource | 59.1% | 90.4% | Qwen3.6 Plus leads |
| MMLU-ProSource | 75.9% | 88.5% | Qwen3.6 Plus leads |
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexSource | 14.2% | 39.6% | Qwen3.6 Plus leads |
| AA-GPQA DiamondSource | 55.7% | 88.2% | Qwen3.6 Plus leads |
| AA-HLESource | 3.6% | 25.7% | Qwen3.6 Plus leads |
| AA-Omniscience IndexSource | -41.3% | 2.7% | Qwen3.6 Plus leads |
| AA-Omniscience AccuracySource | 25.4% | 26.2% | Qwen3.6 Plus leads |
| AA-Omniscience Hallucination RateSource | 89.4% | 32.0% | Qwen3.6 Plus leads |
| SuperGPQASource | — | 71.6% | Not comparable |
| MMLU-ReduxSource | — | 94.5% | Not comparable |
| C-EvalSource | — | 93.3% | Not comparable |
| HLESource | — | 28.8% | Not comparable |
MathQwen3.6 Plus wins7 benchmarks
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 | Qwen3.6 Plus | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3)Source | 1.724% | 26.207% | Qwen3.6 Plus leads |
| AIME26Source | — | 95.3% | Not comparable |
| HMMT Feb 2025Source | — | 96.7% | Not comparable |
| HMMT Nov 2025Source | — | 94.6% | Not comparable |
| HMMT Feb 2026Source | — | 87.8% | Not comparable |
| MMAnswerBenchSource | — | 83.8% | Not comparable |
| FrontierMath v2 (Tier 4)Source | — | 8.333% | Not comparable |
Multilingual2 benchmarks
Multimodal9 benchmarks
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 | Qwen3.6 Plus | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena WebsiteSource | 1150 | 1249 | Qwen3.6 Plus leads |
| MMMUSource | — | 86.0% | Not comparable |
| MMMU-ProSource | — | 78.8% | Not comparable |
| MathVisionSource | — | 88.0% | Not comparable |
| VideoMMMUSource | — | 84.0% | Not comparable |
| ScreenSpot ProSource | — | 68.2% | Not comparable |
| CharXivSource | — | 81.5% | Not comparable |
| V*Source | — | 96.9% | Not comparable |
| AA-MMMU-ProSource | — | 78.0% | Not comparable |
Frequently Asked Questions (5)
Which is better, DeepSeek V3 or Qwen3.6 Plus?
Qwen3.6 Plus is ahead on BenchLM's BenchAlign leaderboard, 65.2 to 44.97. The biggest single separator in this matchup is SWE-bench Verified, where the scores are 42% and 78.8%.
Which is better for knowledge tasks, DeepSeek V3 or Qwen3.6 Plus?
DeepSeek V3 has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 72.7 versus 57.1. Inside this category, AA-Omniscience Hallucination Rate is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Which is better for coding, DeepSeek V3 or Qwen3.6 Plus?
Qwen3.6 Plus has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 70.3 versus 38.9. Inside this category, SWE-bench Verified is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Which is better for math, DeepSeek V3 or Qwen3.6 Plus?
Qwen3.6 Plus has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 60.5 versus 1.7. Inside this category, FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3) is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Which is better for instruction following, DeepSeek V3 or Qwen3.6 Plus?
DeepSeek V3 has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 86.1 versus 82.3. Inside this category, AA-IFBench is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Self-host vs API cost
Estimates at 50,000 req/day · 1000 tokens/req average.
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