Qwen: Qwen3.6 Max Preview vs Google: Gemini 2.5 Pro
Head-to-head API pricing and cost comparison between Qwen’s Qwen: Qwen3.6 Max Preview and Google’s Google: Gemini 2.5 Pro. Prices auto-refresh daily from OpenRouter.
Google: Gemini 2.5 Pro is 4% cheaper for input tokens; Qwen: Qwen3.6 Max Preview wins on output tokens at $7.80/1M.
Side-by-side comparison
| Spec | Qwen: Qwen3.6 Max Preview | Google: Gemini 2.5 Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Input price (per 1M) | $1.30 | $1.25 |
| Cached input (per 1M) | — | $0.13 |
| Output price (per 1M) | $7.80 | $10.00 |
| Batch input (per 1M) | — | — |
| Batch output (per 1M) | — | — |
| Reasoning price (per 1M) | — | $10.00 |
| Context window | 262K | 1049K |
| Vision support | No | Yes |
| Caching support | No | Yes |
| Batch API | No | No |
| Reasoning capability | No | Yes |
Monthly cost at volume
Estimated monthly API spend at common production traffic levels (input/output tokens per request shown).
| Volume | Qwen: Qwen3.6 Max Preview | Google: Gemini 2.5 Pro | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
1K req/day 500in / 200out tokens | $66.30 | $78.75 | $12.45 Qwen: Qwen3.6 Max Preview wins |
10K req/day 1500in / 500out tokens | $1,755 | $2,063 | $307.50 Qwen: Qwen3.6 Max Preview wins |
100K req/day 3000in / 800out tokens | $30,420 | $35,250 | $4,830 Qwen: Qwen3.6 Max Preview wins |
1M req/day 8000in / 2000out tokens | $780,000 | $900,000 | $120,000 Qwen: Qwen3.6 Max Preview wins |
Adjust input/output token counts, request volume, batch & cached pricing.
Related comparisons
Frequently asked questions
Which is cheaper, Qwen: Qwen3.6 Max Preview or Google: Gemini 2.5 Pro?
For input tokens, Google: Gemini 2.5 Pro is roughly 4% cheaper at $1.25/1M vs $1.30/1M. For output tokens, Qwen: Qwen3.6 Max Preview wins at $7.80/1M. Real-world cost depends on your input/output ratio — use the calculator to model your actual workload.
What’s the context window difference?
Qwen: Qwen3.6 Max Preview has a context window of 262K tokens. Google: Gemini 2.5 Pro offers 1049K tokens. Larger context windows are valuable for long documents, RAG pipelines, and multi-turn conversations — but they come with higher input-token bills if you fill them every request.
Should I use Qwen: Qwen3.6 Max Preview or Google: Gemini 2.5 Pro?
Choose Qwen: Qwen3.6 Max Preview if you’re already on the Qwen stack, want broad ecosystem support, or prefer its lower output price. Choose Google: Gemini 2.5 Pro for Google’s ecosystem, native vision input, or its cheaper input tokens. Run a small benchmark on your own prompts before committing — price is only one axis.
How are these prices kept current?
Prices are pulled directly from OpenRouter’s public models API once every 24 hours via a Convex cron job, then normalized to per-1M-token figures. Last refresh: Apr 28, 2026.