Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning) vs Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning) by Google or Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) scores 9.3 points higher (18.2 vs 8.9) but costs 61× as much to run the benchmark ($896 vs $14.7; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) when you need intelligence above 8.9, and Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning) when 8.9 is enough.
| Metric | Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning) | Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 8.9 | 18.2 | +104.5% Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reas… is 2.0× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $14.68 | $896.39 | +6006.2% Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reas… is 61× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 57.75s | 46.88s | −18.8% Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reas… is 18.8% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.02 / $0.10 | $0.38 / $2.25 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) vs Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning): 104.5% more intelligence, 6006.2% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 18.8% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning)Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/gemma-4-e4b/qwen3-6-35b-a3b · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gemma-4-e4b/qwen3-6-35b-a3b?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill