Model Comparison

GLM-5.1 vs Qwen3.6-35B-A3BWhich is better in 2026?

GLM-5.1 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: GLM-5.1 vs Qwen3.6-35B-A3B — which is better?

GLM-5.1 (by Zhipu AI) and Qwen3.6-35B-A3B (by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team) are two of the AI models people compare most. Here is how they stack up on benchmarks, price and capabilities, and which one to pick in 2026.

GLM-5.1 outperforms in 12 benchmarks (AIME 2026, GDPval-AA, GPQA, HMMT 2025, Humanity's Last Exam, IMO-AnswerBench, MCP Atlas, NL2Repo, SWE-Bench Pro, TAU3-Bench, Terminal-Bench 2.0, Toolathlon), while Qwen3.6-35B-A3B is better at 1 benchmark (HMMT Feb 26). GLM-5.1 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose GLM-5.1 if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 12 of 13 shared benchmarks

Choose Qwen3.6-35B-A3B if…

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Apr 2026

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

13 benchmarks

GLM-5.1 outperforms in 12 benchmarks (AIME 2026, GDPval-AA, GPQA, HMMT 2025, Humanity's Last Exam, IMO-AnswerBench, MCP Atlas, NL2Repo, SWE-Bench Pro, TAU3-Bench, Terminal-Bench 2.0, Toolathlon), while Qwen3.6-35B-A3B is better at 1 benchmark (HMMT Feb 26).

GLM-5.1 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Tue Jul 21 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

719.0B diff

GLM-5.1 has 719.0B more parameters than Qwen3.6-35B-A3B, making it 2054.3% larger.

Zhipu AI
GLM-5.1
754.0Bparameters
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B
35.0Bparameters
754.0B
GLM-5.1
35.0B
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only GLM-5.1 specifies input context (200,000 tokens). Only GLM-5.1 specifies output context (128,000 tokens).

Zhipu AI
GLM-5.1
Input200,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Tue Jul 21 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B supports multimodal inputs, whereas GLM-5.1 does not.

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

GLM-5.1

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

GLM-5.1 is licensed under MIT, while Qwen3.6-35B-A3B uses Apache 2.0.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

GLM-5.1

MIT

Open weights

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

GLM-5.1 was released on 2026-04-07, while Qwen3.6-35B-A3B was released on 2026-04-16.

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B is 0 month newer than GLM-5.1.

GLM-5.1

Apr 7, 2026

3 months ago

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B

Apr 16, 2026

3 months ago

1w newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

Zhipu AI
Larger context window (200,000 tokens)
Higher AIME 2026 score (95.3% vs 92.7%)
Higher GDPval-AA score (42.7% vs 35.2%)
Higher GPQA score (86.2% vs 86.0%)
Higher HMMT 2025 score (94.0% vs 90.7%)
Higher Humanity's Last Exam score (52.3% vs 21.4%)
Higher IMO-AnswerBench score (83.8% vs 78.9%)
Higher MCP Atlas score (71.8% vs 62.8%)
Higher NL2Repo score (42.7% vs 29.4%)
Higher SWE-Bench Pro score (58.4% vs 49.5%)
Higher TAU3-Bench score (70.6% vs 67.2%)
Higher Terminal-Bench 2.0 score (69.0% vs 51.5%)
Higher Toolathlon score (40.7% vs 26.9%)
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B

View details

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Supports multimodal inputs
Higher HMMT Feb 26 score (83.6% vs 82.6%)

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against GLM-5.1 and Qwen3.6-35B-A3B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

GLM-5.1
✓ Preferred
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Zhipu AI
GLM-5.1
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B

FAQ

Common questions about GLM-5.1 vs Qwen3.6-35B-A3B.

Which is better, GLM-5.1 or Qwen3.6-35B-A3B?

GLM-5.1 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. GLM-5.1 is made by Zhipu AI and Qwen3.6-35B-A3B is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does GLM-5.1 compare to Qwen3.6-35B-A3B in benchmarks?

GLM-5.1 scores Vending-Bench 2: 100.0%, AIME 2026: 95.3%, HMMT 2025: 94.0%, GPQA: 86.2%, IMO-AnswerBench: 83.8%. Qwen3.6-35B-A3B scores MMLU-Redux: 93.3%, MMBench-V1.1: 92.8%, AI2D: 92.7%, AIME 2026: 92.7%, RefCOCO-avg: 92.0%.

What are the context window sizes for GLM-5.1 and Qwen3.6-35B-A3B?

GLM-5.1 supports 200K tokens and Qwen3.6-35B-A3B supports an unknown number of tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between GLM-5.1 and Qwen3.6-35B-A3B?

Key differences include multimodal support (no vs yes), licensing (MIT vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes GLM-5.1 and Qwen3.6-35B-A3B?

GLM-5.1 is developed by Zhipu AI and Qwen3.6-35B-A3B is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.

Related comparisons