GPT-6.1 Terra vs Qwen3.6 Max
Full profiles: GPT-6.1 Terra (OpenAI) and Qwen3.6 Max (Alibaba): every benchmark, price and rank.
Updated · Data from 6 sources
As of 27 Oct 2026, GPT-6.1 Terra (max) and Qwen3.6 Max (max) are neck and neck on quality (65.9 vs 62.2 on the BenchLeader Index, inside the ±7.6 margin of error), and GPT-6.1 Terra (max) costs 1.5× less, which makes it the better buy for most workloads. GPT-6.1 Terra leads in every category we measure both in.
Which to pick for…
The pick's numbers come first. Category scores on the BenchLeader scale (50 is the average model, 15 points one standard deviation). High confidence means a lead of half a standard deviation or more; under one point is called either.
| Use case | Pick | Why | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reasoning | GPT-6.1 Terra | 86 vs 58 category score; CritPt 28.0% vs 3.7% | High |
| Knowledge | GPT-6.1 Terra | 75 vs 62 category score; AA-Omniscience 29.8 vs 9.2 | High |
| Long documents | GPT-6.1 Terra | 66 vs 65 category score; AA-LCR 82.7% vs 80.7% | Medium |
| Chat quality (human preference) | – | Only Qwen3.6 Max has an Arena rating (65 category score) | Not comparable |
| Lowest cost | GPT-6.1 Terra | $2.00 vs $2.92 per 1M blended; agentic coding session $0.080 vs $0.109 | – |
| High volume on a budget | Neither flagship | A smaller model is usually the better fit: Cheapest good LLMs, Fastest LLMs | – |
Key differences
- GPT-6.1 Terra (max) and Qwen3.6 Max (max) are neck and neck on quality (65.9 vs 62.2, within the ±7.6 margin).
- GPT-6.1 Terra (max) is stronger in composite, knowledge, long context, multimodal, reasoning.
- Qwen3.6 Max (max) is stronger in agents & tools, coding, human preference, instruction following, maths.
- GPT-6.1 Terra (max) is 1.5× cheaper ($2.00 vs $2.92 per 1M blended).
At a glance
| Spec | GPT-6.1 Terra | Qwen3.6 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | OpenAI | Alibaba |
| Released | 26 Oct 2026 | 20 Apr 2026 |
| Context window (tokens) | 1,050,000 | 262,144 |
| Compared at | GPT-6.1 Terra (max) | Qwen3.6 Max (max) |
| Open weights | No | No |
| Price in / out / cached input per 1M | $1.00 / $5.00 / $0.050 | $1.30 / $7.80 / $0.130 |
Category by category
Category scores on the BenchLeader scale: 50 is the average evaluated model, 15 points is one standard deviation. A gap under one point is called level.
| Category | GPT-6.1 Terra (max) | Qwen3.6 Max (max) | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reasoning | 86.2 | 58.1 | GPT-6.1 Terra |
| Coding | – | 56.6 | not comparable |
| Agents & tools | – | 72.1 | not comparable |
| Maths | – | 64.9 | not comparable |
| Knowledge | 74.5 | 62.1 | GPT-6.1 Terra |
| Instruction following | – | 74.6 | not comparable |
| Human preference | – | 64.8 | not comparable |
| Multimodal | 67.5 | – | not comparable |
| Long context | 66.3 | 65.2 | GPT-6.1 Terra |
| Composite | 82.8 | 60.9 | GPT-6.1 Terra |
Where sources disagree
Across the 6 benchmarks both have, GPT-6.1 Terra leads 6, Qwen3.6 Max leads 0. Every overall index that rates both puts GPT-6.1 Terra ahead.
| Overall index | GPT-6.1 Terra (max) | Qwen3.6 Max (max) | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| BenchLeader Index | 65.9 | 62.2 | neck and neck |
| AA Intelligence Index v4.3.2 | 48.1 | 28.4 | GPT-6.1 Terra |
Each publisher runs its own tasks, harnesses and effort settings, so their overall verdicts can differ; BenchLeader reconciles them on one scale. † measured at another effort setting of the same model (the publisher did not test the one compared here).
Price, speed and latency
List prices blended at three input tokens per output token. Per-task prices use the token counts on the methodology page; suite cost is what Artificial Analysis paid to run its whole Intelligence Index.
| Measure | GPT-6.1 Terra (max) | Qwen3.6 Max (max) |
|---|---|---|
| Blended price per 1M tokens | $2.00 | $2.92 |
| Input / output per 1M | $1.00 / $5.00 | $1.30 / $7.80 |
| Cached input per 1M | $0.050 | $0.130 |
| Price per task: chat reply | $0.0019 | $0.0029 |
| Price per task: summarize a 30-page report | $0.015 | $0.020 |
| Price per task: code edit | $0.013 | $0.019 |
| Price per task: agentic coding session | $0.080 | $0.109 |
| Price per task: structured extraction | $0.0030 | $0.0042 |
| Cost to run a full benchmark suite | $0.403 | – |
| Output speed | 91 tok/s | – |
| Time to first answer | 131.8 s | – |
| Time to a complete answer | 137.3 s | – |
Each model is compared at its best-ranked reasoning-effort setting. GPT-6.1 Terra (max) scores 65.9 and takes 132 s to its first answer token; GPT-6.1 Terra (xhigh) scores 65.0 in 18 s, GPT-6.1 Terra (high) scores 64.7 in 7 s. Qwen3.6 Max (max) scores 62.2. Higher effort means more thinking before the answer: better scores, longer waits and more tokens billed. How reasoning effort changes scores and cost.
Every benchmark
51 benchmarks, grouped by category; each name links to the board and its leaders. † measured at another effort setting of the same model, shown for reference and not counted as a win.
| Metric | Publisher | GPT-6.1 Terra (max) | Qwen3.6 Max (max) |
|---|---|---|---|
| BenchLeader Index | BenchLeader | 65.9 | 62.2 |
| Composite score | BenchLeader | 82.8 | 60.9 |
| Knowledge score | BenchLeader | 74.5 | 62.1 |
| Long context score | BenchLeader | 66.3 | 65.2 |
| Multimodal score | BenchLeader | 67.5 | – |
| Reasoning score | BenchLeader | 86.2 | 58.1 |
| Agents & tools score | BenchLeader | – | 72.1 |
| Coding score | BenchLeader | – | 56.6 |
| Human preference score | BenchLeader | – | 64.8 |
| Instruction following score | BenchLeader | – | 74.6 |
| Maths score | BenchLeader | – | 64.9 |
| Blended price $/M | BenchLeader | $2.00 | $2.92 |
| Output speed | BenchLeader | 91 tok/s | – |
| Time to first answer | BenchLeader | 131.8 s | – |
| Context window | BenchLeader | 1,050,000 tokens | 262,144 tokens |
| Reasoning | |||
| GPQA Diamond | Epoch AI Benchmarking Hub | – | 87.4% |
| SimpleBench | SimpleBench | – | 63.0% |
| Arena Hard Prompts | Arena (LMArena) | – | 1483 |
| LiveBench 2.0 Reasoning | LiveBench | 88.7%† | – |
| GPQA Diamond (AA) | Artificial Analysis | – | 88.8% |
| Humanity's Last Exam (AA) | Artificial Analysis | 46.3% | 30.8% |
| CritPt | Artificial Analysis | 28.0% | 3.7% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | Epoch AI Benchmarking Hub | – | 19.0%† |
| LMCA | Epoch AI Benchmarking Hub | – | 42.5% |
| DTBench | Epoch AI Benchmarking Hub | – | 87.2% |
| Coding | |||
| SWE-bench Verified (Epoch) | Epoch AI Benchmarking Hub | – | 76.7% |
| Arena Coding | Arena (LMArena) | – | 1512 |
| Arena WebDev | Arena (LMArena) | – | 1482 |
| LiveBench 2.0 Coding | LiveBench | 90.8%† | – |
| SciCode (AA) | Artificial Analysis | 55.1% | – |
| SWE-bench (Vals) | Vals AI | – | 72.8% |
| Terminal-Bench 4.0 (AA) | Artificial Analysis | 55.6% | – |
| FrontierCode 1.1 (AA) | Artificial Analysis | 36.0% | – |
| Agents & tools | |||
| LiveBench Long Agentic | LiveBench | 48.6%† | – |
| LiveBench Browser | LiveBench | 93.1%† | – |
| Terminal-Bench Hard | Artificial Analysis | – | 43.9% |
| τ²-Bench Telecom (AA) | Artificial Analysis | – | 95.9% |
| Terminal-Bench 2.0 (Vals) | Vals AI | – | 51.7% |
| Vending-Bench 2 | Andon Labs | – | 4254.2 |
| AutomationBench | Artificial Analysis | 60.2% | – |
Show all 51 benchmarks
| Metric | Publisher | GPT-6.1 Terra (max) | Qwen3.6 Max (max) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agents & tools | |||
| GDP.pdf (AA) | Artificial Analysis | 28.6% | – |
| AA-Briefcase v1.1 | Artificial Analysis | 1402 | – |
| Terminal-Bench-Science 0.1 (AA) | Artificial Analysis | 57.6% | – |
| Maths | |||
| OTIS Mock AIME | Epoch AI Benchmarking Hub | – | 91.1% |
| Arena Maths | Arena (LMArena) | – | 1476 |
| Knowledge | |||
| SimpleQA Verified | Epoch AI Benchmarking Hub | – | 52.0% |
| LiveBench 2.0 Data Analysis | LiveBench | 82.3%† | – |
| LiveBench Research | LiveBench | 73.9%† | – |
| AA-Omniscience | Artificial Analysis | 29.8 | 9.2 |
| CorpFin | Vals AI | – | 66.5% |
| CaseLaw v2 | Vals AI | – | 47.9% |
| AA-Omniscience: accuracy | Artificial Analysis | 49.1% | 37.9% |
| AA-Omniscience: non-hallucination | Artificial Analysis | 62.0% | 53.8% |
| Instruction following | |||
| IFBench | Artificial Analysis | – | 76.6% |
| Arena Instruction Following | Arena (LMArena) | – | 1452 |
| Human preference | |||
| Arena Text | Arena (LMArena) | – | 1461 |
| Arena Creative Writing | Arena (LMArena) | – | 1438 |
| Arena Multi-turn | Arena (LMArena) | – | 1468 |
| Arena Longer Queries | Arena (LMArena) | – | 1474 |
| Multimodal | |||
| LiveBench Design | LiveBench | 82.3%† | – |
| MMMU-Pro | Artificial Analysis | 84.7% | – |
| Long context | |||
| AA-LCR | Artificial Analysis | 82.7% | 80.7% |
| Composite | |||
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Epoch AI Benchmarking Hub | – | 149.4 |
| LiveBench 2.0 | LiveBench | 77.2%† | – |
| AA Intelligence Index v4.3.2 | Artificial Analysis | 48.1 | 28.4 |
| Safety & honesty | |||
| FORTRESS | Scale AI SEAL | 18.2%† | – |
Data as of 2026-10-27. Best configuration of each model; every score links to its source on the model pages.
What changed
- Qwen3.6 Max (max): BenchLeader Index 62.8 → 62.3.
- Qwen3.6 Max (max): BenchLeader Index 63.3 → 62.8.
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Rankings: Best LLM overall · Best LLM for agents · Best cheap LLMs
GPT-6.1 Terra vs Qwen3.6 Max: questions
- Is GPT-6.1 Terra better than Qwen3.6 Max?
- GPT-6.1 Terra (max) and Qwen3.6 Max (max) are neck and neck on quality (65.9 vs 62.2, within the ±7.6 margin). The BenchLeader Index combines every independent quality benchmark; the two are within the margin of error as of 2026-10-27, so check the category scores for your use.
- Which is cheaper, GPT-6.1 Terra or Qwen3.6 Max, and will that change?
- GPT-6.1 Terra is cheaper today: $2.00 against $2.92 per million tokens, blended at three input tokens per output token. No price change has been announced for either.
- Which is better for long documents?
- GPT-6.1 Terra scores higher on long-context benchmarks (66 vs 65). GPT-6.1 Terra accepts more context: 1,050,000 against 262,144 tokens for Qwen3.6 Max.
- Do independent benchmarks agree on GPT-6.1 Terra vs Qwen3.6 Max?
- Across the 6 benchmarks both have, GPT-6.1 Terra leads 6, Qwen3.6 Max leads 0. Every overall index that rates both puts GPT-6.1 Terra ahead.
- When was GPT-6.1 Terra released?
- GPT-6.1 Terra was released on 26 Oct 2026.