Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) vs Trinity Large Thinking
Which is better for the money: Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) by Alibaba or Trinity Large Thinking by Arcee AI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) scores 7.4 points higher (18.2 vs 10.8) but costs 3.8× as much to run the benchmark ($896 vs $233; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) when you need intelligence above 10.8, and Trinity Large Thinking when 10.8 is enough.
| Metric | Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) | Trinity Large Thinking | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 18.2 | 10.8 | −40.7% Trinity Large Thinking is 40.7% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $896.39 | $232.95 | −74.0% Trinity Large Thinking is 74.0% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 46.91s | 8.34s | −82.2% Trinity Large Thinking is 82.2% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.38 / $2.25 | $0.25 / $0.80 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Video | Text |
Trinity Large Thinking vs Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning): 40.7% less intelligence, 74.0% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 82.2% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- 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.
- Trinity Large Thinking is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning)Trinity Large ThinkingToday'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/qwen3-6-35b-a3b/trinity-large-thinking · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/qwen3-6-35b-a3b/trinity-large-thinking?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill