Qwen3.6 35B A3B alternatives
Match · Updated July 2026
The closest alternative to Qwen3.6 35B A3B is MiniMax M2.1 — comparable intelligence (31.4 vs 31.6); for a cheaper option, GPT-5.6 Luna runs $0.100/M vs $0.140/M; and the best open-weight substitute is Kimi K3.
Closest match
Cheaper alternatives
gpt-5.6-luna
$0.100/M input · 51.2 intel
hy3
$0.132/M input · 41.2 intel
gpt-5.4-nano:batch
$0.100/M input · 38.2 intel
hy3-preview
$0.063/M input · 33.6 intel
ring-2.6-1t
$0.075/M input · 30.6 intel
ling-2.6-1t
$0.075/M input · 26.1 intel
Smarter alternatives
Open-source alternatives
kimi-k3
57.1 intel · open weights · 1.0M ctx
glm-5.2
51.1 intel · open weights · 1.0M ctx
minimax-m3
44.4 intel · open weights · 1.0M ctx
minimax-m3:batch
44.4 intel · open weights · 524K ctx
deepseek-v4-pro
44.3 intel · open weights · 1.0M ctx
kimi-k2.6
44.2 intel · open weights · 262K ctx
Frequently asked
What is the best alternative to Qwen3.6 35B A3B?
MiniMax M2.1 is the closest alternative to Qwen3.6 35B A3B, with an Intelligence Index of 31.4 (Qwen3.6 35B A3B scores 31.6) at $0.300 per million input tokens.
Is there a cheaper alternative to Qwen3.6 35B A3B?
Yes — GPT-5.6 Luna costs $0.100 per million input tokens versus $0.140 for Qwen3.6 35B A3B, while staying within ~8 points of its Intelligence Index.
Is there an open-source alternative to Qwen3.6 35B A3B?
Kimi K3 is the strongest open-weight alternative to Qwen3.6 35B A3B — downloadable from Hugging Face and self-hostable, scoring 57.1 on intelligence.