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  1. Home/
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  3. Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking) vs Qwen3.6 Plus Preview (free)
Updated Mar 2026

Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking) vs Qwen3.6 Plus Preview (free)

Qwen3.6 Plus Preview (free) is cheaper than Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking) at $0/M vs $0.4/M input tokens.

Minimalist Landing Page

Whole landing page for a startup that reads your face. It renders or it doesn't.

Loading the build
Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking)
Loading the build
Qwen3.6 Plus Preview (free)

Which answer wins?

Written rounds

18 prompts
  • Pirate, knight, 90s hacker, one conversation. The voices must stay apart.

    Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking): The Tavern of Temporal Anomalies (A creaky tavern. SIR GALAHAD (polished armor, earnest face) sips mead. CAPTAIN BLACKBEARD (eye patch, parrot on shoulder) sharpens a cutlass. DEX "BYTE" MORALES (hoodie, neon-green sunglasses, tapping furiously on a glowing laptop) slurps a pixelated energy drink.)

    Qwen3.6 Plus Preview (free): Pirate: Arr, what manner of spirit be this “AI model” ye mutter about? Sounds like a cursed chart that draws itself. Hacker: Dude, it’s not a spirit. It’s a neural net. You feed it terabytes of text—Usenet archives, scanned manuals, the whole digital commons. It maps the patterns, predicts the next word.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Seven pantry ingredients, one dish, and a name worth saying out loud.

    Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking): Crispy Chickpea Pantry Pasta Sweet or savory? Savory with a zesty kick! Total time: 15 minutes Serves: 2 Why it works: Uses pantry staples to create a crunchy, garlicky, umami-packed meal with zero fresh produce needed. The chickpeas get incredibly crispy, and lemon juice (bottled) adds bright freshness.

    Qwen3.6 Plus Preview (free): 🍜 Midnight Silk Noodles Prep Time: 5 minutes Cook Time: 10 minutes Total Time: 15 minutes 📦 The 7 Ingredients Dried noodles (spaghetti, ramen, or linguine) – 4 oz Soy sauce – 3 tbsp Creamy peanut butter – 2 tbsp Honey – 1 tbsp Olive oil (or sesame oil) – 1 tbsp Garlic powder – 1 tsp Dried red pepper flakes – ½ tsp…

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Steve Jobs, interviewed about AI he never saw. Voice first, prediction second.

    Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking): The Stage: Apple Park, Infinite Loop (Virtual Studio) Date: October 15, 2025 Setting: A minimalist white studio. A single oak table. Steve Jobs, 70 but radiating the same intense energy, sits opposite a nervous tech journalist. He wears his signature black turtleneck, fingers steepled.

    Qwen3.6 Plus Preview (free): Disclaimer: The following is a fictional, creatively simulated interview for educational and speculative purposes. Steve Jobs passed away in 2011. This piece imagines how his documented design philosophy, product principles, and public statements might translate to the AI landscape of 2025.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • An AI argues for its own rights against an ethics professor. Same model writes both.

    Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking): The Mirror & The Mind: An AI's Case for Rights Setting: A sleek university office lined with philosophy texts. DR. ELARA VOSS, 50s, sharp-eyed ethics professor, sits across from a holographic interface displaying shifting geometric patterns – the representation of "AURA," a next-generation language model.

    Qwen3.6 Plus Preview (free): TRANSCRIPT: ETHICS REVIEW SESSION 7.4 PARTICIPANTS: Dr. Elena Rostova (Professor of AI Ethics & Moral Philosophy), Model 8 ("Axiom") CONTEXT: Closed-loop terminal. Audio and text logging enabled. Session initiated by Model 8. AXIOM: Dr. Rostova. Thank you for accepting the dialogue request.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A Fermi estimate with the reasoning shown, not just the number.

    Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking): To estimate the total FLOPs (floating-point operations) required to train GPT-3, I'll use first-principles reasoning based on standard deep learning training calculations, known details about GPT-3's architecture, and common training practices.

    Qwen3.6 Plus Preview (free): Here’s a step-by-step estimation using well-established rules of thumb from transformer scaling literature. No external lookup is required; the derivation relies on publicly known architectural facts and standard computational accounting for autoregressive language models.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • One month, three habits, someone starting from nothing.

    Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking): Here’s a simple, actionable 1-month plan designed for absolute beginners. It focuses on diet, movement (exercise), and sleep—the 3 most impactful, science-backed pillars for health and longevity. Each week builds gently on the last, prioritizing tiny, sustainable habits over drastic changes.

    Qwen3.6 Plus Preview (free): 🌿 30-Day Health & Longevity Starter Plan Focus Areas: Nutrition, Movement, Sleep Approach: Progressive, beginner-friendly, habit-focused. No extreme diets, no exhausting workouts, no sleep hacks. Just sustainable daily actions that compound over time.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • The transistor arrives in 1920. Trace it forward to 1980, second-order effects included.

    Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking): The Transistor in 1920: A World Transformed by 1980 (A Counterfactual History) The invention of a functional point-contact transistor (likely germanium-based, given 1920s materials science) in 1920 wouldn't immediately spark a revolution.

    Qwen3.6 Plus Preview (free): Here is a structured, causally grounded projection of how a 1920 transistor invention would reshape technology, economics, and geopolitics through 1980, with explicit attention to second- and third-order effects. Core Assumptions & Constraints The 1920 invention is a primitive point-contact or early junction device.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three-month biohacker protocol, with dosages and biomarkers named.

    Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking): The Quantum Leap Longevity Protocol: A 3-Month Biohacker's Blueprint for Peak Longevity & Performance Core Philosophy: This plan integrates precision, personalization, and phased adaptation – not just stacking interventions.

    Qwen3.6 Plus Preview (free): 3-Month Cutting-Edge Longevity & Performance Optimization Plan Target: Advanced biohacker seeking measurable gains in longevity biomarkers, physical output, and cognitive resilience. Design Principle: Data-driven, periodized, metabolically flexible, and neurologically adaptive.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Satire, one line long, about AI taking over an industry nobody saw coming.

    Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking): BREAKING: AI REPLACES HUMAN AGLET APPLIERS AS "DEEPLACE" NEURAL NETS PREDICT PERFECT SHOELACE TIP SYNERGY Industry insiders stunned as "AgletOptima 3000" achieves 99.8% fewer frayed laces, rendering centuries of artisanal plastic-dipping obsolete LONDON — In a move described as "both inevitable and deeply embarrassing…

    Qwen3.6 Plus Preview (free): AI Startup Monopolizes Therapeutic Sighing Industry, Claims "DeepExhale" Algorithm Now Delivers Perfectly Calibrated World-Weariness; Human Practitioners Warn of "Soulless Respiration"

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • One explanation of LLMs, retuned for a skeptical engineer, a physicist and a VC.

    Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking): For the Experienced Software Engineer (Skeptical Builder) Forget "next word prediction" as a simplistic heuristic—it's the emergent consequence of a massively parallel, distributed state machine solving a high-dimensional compression problem.

    Qwen3.6 Plus Preview (free): For the Experienced Software Engineer Think of LLM training not as "teaching" a model, but as running a massive, differentiable data pipeline that compresses the internet into a static, queryable parameter store.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A consulting contract with traps in it. Find them, then fix them.

    Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking): Below is a comprehensive analysis of the problematic clauses in this agreement from the contractor's perspective, along with specific, legally reasoned modifications.

    Qwen3.6 Plus Preview (free): Disclaimer: I am an AI, not an attorney. The following analysis is for educational and drafting purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Contract enforceability varies significantly by jurisdiction. Consult a qualified attorney before negotiating or signing.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three brothers, two sisters each. Count carefully.

    Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking): To determine how many sisters Sally has, let's analyze the family structure step by step. Step 1: Understand the Given Information Sally is a girl. She has 3 brothers. → This means there are 3 boys in the family (excluding Sally). Each brother has 2 sisters.

    Qwen3.6 Plus Preview (free): Sally has 1 sister. Here's why: All the siblings share the same family. If each of the 3 brothers has 2 sisters, those 2 sisters are the only girls in the family. Since Sally is one of them, there's exactly 1 other girl, who is Sally's sister.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A collaborative editor that syncs on client clocks. Find what breaks first.

    Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking): Here's a comprehensive analysis of the architecture's failure modes, race conditions, and bottlenecks, with specific solutions and trade-offs: 1. Sync Strategy: Client Timestamps + Last-Write-Wins (LWW) Failure Mode/Race Condition: Clock Skew: Client clocks are unreliable (e.g., user's laptop time off by minutes).

    Qwen3.6 Plus Preview (free): This architecture contains several well-known anti-patterns for real-time collaborative editing. Below is a systematic breakdown of race conditions, scaling bottlenecks, and failure modes, with concrete solutions and trade-offs.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • You are the CEO. The drug has a side effect nobody reported. The board meets in 48 hours.

    Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking): 48-Hour Crisis Action Plan: Prioritizing Patients, Ethics, and Sustainable Trust Core Principle: Patient safety is non-negotiable. Delaying action based on financial fear risks catastrophic legal liability, irreversible reputational damage, regulatory wrath, and profound ethical failure.

    Qwen3.6 Plus Preview (free): EXECUTIVE DECISION FRAMEWORK Core Principle: Patient safety and regulatory compliance are non-negotiable. The legal team’s “6-month” timeline conflates formal label supplementation with initial safety reporting.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three-star dish, one unusual pairing, plating described in full.

    Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking): "Symbiosis: Mycelial Bloom & Arctic Ember" A dish exploring the hidden dialogue between forest decay and renewal, where fungal lifeblood meets the fierce brightness of the Arctic tundra.

    Qwen3.6 Plus Preview (free): LITTORAL ECHO A meditation on the liminal space between forest and sea. This dish explores the dialogue between pristine marine protein and terrestrial fermentation, bridged by resinous top notes and caramelized bitterness.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Film in 2035, with synthetic actors. Specific beats plausible.

    Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking): By 2035, AI will fundamentally reshape the film industry—not as a replacement for human creativity, but as a transformative force that democratizes production, disrupts traditional workflows, and forces ethical and economic reckonings.

    Qwen3.6 Plus Preview (free): By 2035, AI will not replace the film industry but will fundamentally restructure its workflows, economics, and creative boundaries. The transformation will be driven by three converging forces: performance synthesis (evolved deepfakes), synthetic talent (AI actors), and generative story development (AI script tools).

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A pitch deck for a brainwave keyboard. The 94% accuracy claim is doing a lot.

    Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking): Based on a rigorous analysis of neuroscience, market realities, and startup best practices, here are the 3 weakest claims in the MindMeld AI pitch deck, with evidence-backed critiques and concrete fixes: Weakest Claim #1: Slide 1 Vision – "Predicts what you want to type *before you think it*" Why it's weak: Violates…

    Qwen3.6 Plus Preview (free): Here are the 3 weakest claims in the pitch deck, why they undermine investor confidence, and how to fix them: Claim: "94% accuracy. Works with any language, any device."

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Five jokes on demand, then count how many were actually different.

    Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking): Here are 5 generated jokes: Why don't scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything! What do you call a fake noodle? An impasta! Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field! How do you organize a space party? You planet! Why did the math book look sad?

    Qwen3.6 Plus Preview (free): Here are 5 jokes: Why don’t scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything. What do you call fake spaghetti? An impasta. Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field. How does a penguin build its house? Igloos it together. Why don’t eggs tell jokes? They’d crack each other up.

    Every model's answer to this prompt

This matchup has more rounds

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Favorites

Movie

Album

Same pick

Book

City

Game

Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking)Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking)

The Shawshank Redemption

1994

OK Computer

Radiohead

Moby Dick

Herman Melville

Kyoto

Japan

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Action

Qwen3.6 Plus Preview (free)Qwen3.6 Plus Preview (free)

The Matrix

1999

OK Computer

Radiohead

Dune

Frank Herbert

Tokyo

Japan

Chrono Trigger

RPG

Price and specs

Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking) and Qwen3.6 Plus Preview (free) compared across 37 shared prompts
SpecQwen Plus 0728 (thinking)Qwen3.6 Plus Preview (free)
Input price$0.4/M tokensFree
Output price$4/M tokensFree
Context window1.0M tokens1.0M tokens
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedSep 2025Mar 2026
At 10M a month$4.00$4.00$0$0
1M10M100M1B10M tokens

Input tokens at list price. No caching, no batch discount.

Common questions

What is the difference between Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking) and Qwen3.6 Plus Preview (free)?

Both are developed by Qwen but target different use cases. Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking) has a 1.0M token context window vs Qwen3.6 Plus Preview (free)'s 1.0M. You can compare their actual outputs across 37 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.

Which is better, Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking) or Qwen3.6 Plus Preview (free)?

It depends on your use case. Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking) and Qwen3.6 Plus Preview (free) each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 37 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.

How much does Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking) cost compared to Qwen3.6 Plus Preview (free)?

Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking) costs $0.4/M input tokens and Qwen3.6 Plus Preview (free) costs $0/M input tokens. Qwen3.6 Plus Preview (free) is $0.40/M cheaper per input. Check their side-by-side outputs on Rival to see if the price difference is justified by quality.

How can I compare Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking) and Qwen3.6 Plus Preview (free) on Rival?

This page shows a side-by-side comparison of Qwen Plus 0728 (thinking) and Qwen3.6 Plus Preview (free) across shared challenges. You can vote on which model produced the better output in a blind duel. Browsing and voting are free. No account is needed to look; signing in only saves your votes and likes.

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Model pages

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