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Model comparison

DeepSeek V3 vs Qwen3.6-27B

Data verified

Head-to-head evidence from 19 shared benchmark results across 5 categories. Overall scores shown here use the public BenchAlign v5 ranking lane.

DeepSeek
44.97/100
Margin
8.9pts
winning →
53.82/100
1 category wins2 category wins

Public leaderboard positions: DeepSeek V3 #147 (Supported); Qwen3.6-27B #93 (Estimated). Intervals and evidence labels describe ranking uncertainty, not a guarantee for a specific workload.

Evidence parity. DeepSeek V3 and Qwen3.6-27B share 19 comparable benchmark results. 3 of 8 categories are comparable. 3 results are unique to DeepSeek V3; 35 to Qwen3.6-27B.

Updated July 21, 2026
Shared results
19
DeepSeek V3 only
3
Qwen3.6-27B only
35
Comparable categories
3 / 8

Pick Qwen3.6-27B if you want the stronger benchmark profile. DeepSeek V3 only becomes the better choice if knowledge is the priority or you would rather avoid the extra latency and token burn of a reasoning model.

Confidence note. This is a partial-evidence comparison with 19 shared benchmark results across 5 evidence categories; 3 of 8 categories currently have scoreable aggregates for both models. Treat the verdict as directional until coverage is more balanced.

Why this result

Qwen3.6-27B is clearly ahead on the BenchAlign aggregate, 53.82 to 44.97. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

Qwen3.6-27B's sharpest advantage is in mathematics, where it averages 89.2 against 1.7. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is LiveCodeBench, 37.6% to 83.9%. DeepSeek V3 does hit back in knowledge, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.

DeepSeek V3 is also the more expensive model on tokens at $0.27 input / $1.10 output per 1M tokens, versus $0.00 input / $0.00 output per 1M tokens for Qwen3.6-27B. That is roughly Infinityx on output cost alone. Qwen3.6-27B is the reasoning model in the pair, while DeepSeek V3 is not. That usually helps on harder chain-of-thought-heavy tests, but it can also mean more latency and more token spend in real use. Qwen3.6-27B gives you the larger context window at 262K, compared with 128K for DeepSeek V3.

Category breakdown

Exact category averages are shown below. Not measured means BenchLM does not have enough sourced public coverage for that model and category.

Category scores and score margins for DeepSeek V3 and Qwen3.6-27B
CategoryDeepSeek V3ΔQwen3.6-27B
MathDeepSeek V31.7Margin 87.5Qwen3.6-27B89.2
CodingDeepSeek V338.9Margin 38.6Qwen3.6-27B77.5
KnowledgeDeepSeek V372.7Margin 19.4Qwen3.6-27B53.3
AgenticDeepSeek V3Not measuredMarginNo overlapQwen3.6-27B59.3
MultimodalDeepSeek V3Not measuredMarginNo overlapQwen3.6-27B76.7
Inst. FollowingDeepSeek V386.1MarginNo overlapQwen3.6-27BNot measured

Decisive benchmark drivers

The largest measured benchmark gaps in this matchup, with exact reported values.

More
A · DeepSeek V3B · Qwen3.6-27B
  1. LiveCodeBench

    Coding
    Source ↗
    A 37.6%B 83.9%
    Winner: Qwen3.6-27BΔ 46.3
    LiveCodeBench: DeepSeek V3 scored 37.6%; Qwen3.6-27B scored 83.9%. Qwen3.6-27B wins this benchmark.
  2. SWE-bench Verified

    Coding
    Source ↗
    A 42%B 77.2%
    Winner: Qwen3.6-27BΔ 35.2
    SWE-bench Verified: DeepSeek V3 scored 42%; Qwen3.6-27B scored 77.2%. Qwen3.6-27B wins this benchmark.
  3. GPQA

    Knowledge
    Source ↗
    A 59.1%B 87.8%
    Winner: Qwen3.6-27BΔ 28.7
    GPQA: DeepSeek V3 scored 59.1%; Qwen3.6-27B scored 87.8%. Qwen3.6-27B wins this benchmark.
  4. MMLU-Pro

    Knowledge
    Source ↗
    A 75.9%B 86.2%
    Winner: Qwen3.6-27BΔ 10.3
    MMLU-Pro: DeepSeek V3 scored 75.9%; Qwen3.6-27B scored 86.2%. Qwen3.6-27B wins this benchmark.

Operational comparison

Runtime and commercial metrics are compared only when both models have a complete sourced value.

MetricDeepSeek V3Qwen3.6-27BComparison
Input / output priceUSD per 1M tokensDeepSeek V3$0.27 input / $1.1 outputQwen3.6-27B$0 input / $0 outputQwen3.6-27B has the lower combined listed price.
Generation speedtokens per secondDeepSeek V3Not availableQwen3.6-27BNot availableA complete speed comparison is not available.
First-answer latencyseconds to first tokenDeepSeek V3Not availableQwen3.6-27BNot availableA complete latency comparison is not available.
Context windowmaximum listed tokensDeepSeek V3128KQwen3.6-27B262KQwen3.6-27B lists the larger context window.

Benchmark Deep Dive

Agentic
BenchmarkDeepSeek V3Qwen3.6-27BResult
AA Agentic IndexSource 1.6%27.0%Qwen3.6-27B leads
τ²-bench resultsSource 22.8%94.2%Qwen3.6-27B leads
GDPval-AASource 0.0%32.0%Qwen3.6-27B leads
GDPval-AASource 2171140Qwen3.6-27B leads
Terminal-Bench 2.0Source 59.3%Not comparable
Claw-EvalSource 72.4%Not comparable
QwenClawBenchSource 53.4%Not comparable
QwenWebBenchSource 1487Not comparable
AndroidWorldSource 70.3%Not comparable
Gert LabsSource 54.84%Not comparable
CodingQwen3.6-27B wins
BenchmarkDeepSeek V3Qwen3.6-27BResult
LiveCodeBenchSource 37.6%83.9%Qwen3.6-27B leads
SWE-bench VerifiedSource 42%77.2%Qwen3.6-27B leads
AA Coding IndexSource 23.0%53.7%Qwen3.6-27B leads
AA-SciCodeSource 35.4%39.8%Qwen3.6-27B leads
SWE MultilingualSource 71.3%Not comparable
SWE-bench ProSource 53.5%Not comparable
Terminal-Bench 2.0Source 59.3%Not comparable
NL2RepoSource 36.2%Not comparable
Reasoning
BenchmarkDeepSeek V3Qwen3.6-27BResult
AA-LCRSource 29.0%68.7%Qwen3.6-27B leads
CritPtSource 0.0%1.1%Qwen3.6-27B leads
KnowledgeDeepSeek V3 wins
BenchmarkDeepSeek V3Qwen3.6-27BResult
GPQASource 59.1%87.8%Qwen3.6-27B leads
MMLU-ProSource 75.9%86.2%Qwen3.6-27B leads
Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexSource 14.2%37.0%Qwen3.6-27B leads
AA-GPQA DiamondSource 55.7%84.2%Qwen3.6-27B leads
AA-HLESource 3.6%21.6%Qwen3.6-27B leads
AA-Omniscience IndexSource -41.3%-19.8%Qwen3.6-27B leads
AA-Omniscience AccuracySource 25.4%19.2%DeepSeek V3 leads
AA-Omniscience Hallucination RateSource 89.4%48.3%Qwen3.6-27B leads
MMLU-ReduxSource 93.5%Not comparable
SuperGPQASource 66%Not comparable
C-EvalSource 91.4%Not comparable
HLESource 24%Not comparable
MathQwen3.6-27B wins
BenchmarkDeepSeek V3Qwen3.6-27BResult
FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3)Source 1.724%Not comparable
HMMT Feb 2025Source 93.8%Not comparable
HMMT Nov 2025Source 90.7%Not comparable
HMMT Feb 2026Source 84.3%Not comparable
MMAnswerBenchSource 80.8%Not comparable
AIME26Source 94.1%Not comparable
Multimodal
BenchmarkDeepSeek V3Qwen3.6-27BResult
Design Arena WebsiteSource 1150Not comparable
MMMUSource 82.9%Not comparable
MMMU-ProSource 75.8%Not comparable
RealWorldQASource 84.1%Not comparable
DynaMathSource 85.6%Not comparable
MStarSource 81.4%Not comparable
SimpleVQASource 56.1%Not comparable
CharXivSource 78.4%Not comparable
CC-OCRSource 81.2%Not comparable
CountBenchSource 97.8%Not comparable
RefCOCO (avg)Source 92.5%Not comparable
ERQASource 62.5%Not comparable
Video-MME (with subtitle)Source 87.7%Not comparable
VideoMMMUSource 84.4%Not comparable
MLVU (M-Avg)Source 86.6%Not comparable
V*Source 94.7%Not comparable
AA-MMMU-ProSource 74.6%Not comparable
Inst. Following
BenchmarkDeepSeek V3Qwen3.6-27BResult
IFEvalSource 86.1%Not comparable
AA-IFBenchSource 34.8%67.6%Qwen3.6-27B leads
Frequently Asked Questions (4)

Which is better, DeepSeek V3 or Qwen3.6-27B?

Qwen3.6-27B is ahead on BenchLM's BenchAlign leaderboard, 53.82 to 44.97. The biggest single separator in this matchup is LiveCodeBench, where the scores are 37.6% and 83.9%.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, DeepSeek V3 or Qwen3.6-27B?

DeepSeek V3 has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 72.7 versus 53.3. Inside this category, AA-Omniscience Hallucination Rate is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, DeepSeek V3 or Qwen3.6-27B?

Qwen3.6-27B has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 77.5 versus 38.9. Inside this category, LiveCodeBench is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, DeepSeek V3 or Qwen3.6-27B?

Qwen3.6-27B has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 89.2 versus 1.7. DeepSeek V3 stays close enough that the answer can still flip depending on your workload.

Self-host vs API cost

Estimates at 50,000 req/day · 1000 tokens/req average.

DeepSeek V3
API / mo$1,028
Self-host / mo$18,221
Break-even1.2B/day
Qwen3.6-27B
API / mo$0
Self-host / mo$429
Break-even
Model the full break-even

Related Comparisons

Last updated: July 21, 2026

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