GPT-5.6 Terra (Non-reasoning) vs Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.6 Terra (Non-reasoning) by OpenAI or Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-27.
Clear winner
Verdict
Pick GPT-5.6 Terra (Non-reasoning)
Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) vs GPT-5.6 Terra (Non-reasoning): 12.5% less intelligence, 250.5% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 840.4% slower end-to-end.
| Metric | GPT-5.6 Terra (Non-reasoning) | Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 20.8 | 18.2 | −12.5% Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reas… is 12.5% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $255.77 | $896.39 | +250.5% Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reas… is 3.5× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 4.90s | 46.08s | +840.4% Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reas… is 840.4% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $12.0 | $0.38 / $2.25 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Video |
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5.6 Terra (Non-reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
- 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.
GPT-5.6 Terra (Non-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/gpt-5-6-terra-non-reasoning/qwen3-6-35b-a3b · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-6-terra-non-reasoning/qwen3-6-35b-a3b?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill