Model Comparison

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B vs GLM-5.1Which is better in 2026?

GLM-5.1 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

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

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

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B outperforms in 1 benchmarks (HMMT Feb 26), while GLM-5.1 is better at 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). GLM-5.1 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose Qwen3.6-35B-A3B if…

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

Choose GLM-5.1 if…

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

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

13 benchmarks

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B outperforms in 1 benchmarks (HMMT Feb 26), while GLM-5.1 is better at 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).

GLM-5.1 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Fri Jul 17 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.

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

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).

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Zhipu AI
GLM-5.1
Input200,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
Fri Jul 17 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.

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B

Text
Images
Audio
Video

GLM-5.1

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

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

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

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B

Apache 2.0

Open weights

GLM-5.1

MIT

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

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

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

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B

Apr 16, 2026

3 months ago

1w newer
GLM-5.1

Apr 7, 2026

3 months ago

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

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%)
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%)

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

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

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

FAQ

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

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

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

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

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%. GLM-5.1 scores Vending-Bench 2: 100.0%, AIME 2026: 95.3%, HMMT 2025: 94.0%, GPQA: 86.2%, IMO-AnswerBench: 83.8%.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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