Qwen3.6 35B A3B is $0.12 cheaper per 1M input tokens (44.4% lower; 1.8x difference).
API cost decision in 10 seconds
Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
Pick Qwen3.6 35B A3B when budget and context both matter.
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Data confirmed:
Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens
Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output
Budget verdict
Pick Qwen3.6 35B A3B when budget and context both matter.
On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Qwen3.6 35B A3B is estimated at $0.65 vs $0.74 for DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus, saving $0.09 (12.8% lower).
Cost-first pickQwen3.6 35B A3B
Context-first pickQwen3.6 35B A3B
Sample savings$0.0912.8%
10x traffic gap$0.95
Qwen3.6 35B A3B is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $0.95. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.
Cost sensitivity
Workload Sensitivity
Cost winner changes by workload shape: input-heavy / RAG favors Qwen3.6 35B A3B, balanced workload favors Qwen3.6 35B A3B, and output-heavy chatbot favors DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus.
| Workload shape | Token mix | Better pick | Qwen3.6 35B A3B | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Input-heavy / RAG | 5M input + 500K output | Qwen3.6 35B A3B | $1.25 | $1.83 |
| Balanced workload | 1M input + 1M output | Qwen3.6 35B A3B | $1.15 | $1.22 |
| Output-heavy chatbot | 1M input + 5M output | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus | $5.15 | $5.02 |
DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus is $0.05 cheaper per 1M output tokens (5% lower; 1.05x difference).
Qwen3.6 35B A3B has 98.3K more context (1.6x larger).
Qwen3.6 35B A3B is $0.09 cheaper on the standard workload (12.8% lower).
Estimate your workload cost
Your Workload Cost
This estimate uses normalized public API pricing per 1M tokens. It is a planning aid, not a billing quote. Verify provider pricing, limits, and terms before production use.
Quick Decision
Qwen3.6 35B A3B has the lower input price; DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus has the lower output price; Qwen3.6 35B A3B offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Qwen3.6 35B A3B is cheaper for the standard workload.
For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $0.65 for Qwen3.6 35B A3B and $0.74 for DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus.
Choose Qwen3.6 35B A3B when you care most about lower input-token price, and larger context window.
Choose DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus when you care most about lower output-token price.
- On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Qwen3.6 35B A3B is estimated at $0.65 vs $0.74 for DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus, saving $0.09 (12.8% lower).
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B is $0.09 cheaper on the standard workload (12.8% lower).
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B is $0.12 cheaper per 1M input tokens (44.4% lower; 1.8x difference).
- DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus is $0.05 cheaper per 1M output tokens (5% lower; 1.05x difference).
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B has 98.3K more context (1.6x larger).
| Feature | Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Qwen) | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus (DeepSeek) |
|---|---|---|
| Input Price prompt tokens per 1M | $0.15 | $0.27 |
| Completion Price per 1M tokens | $1 | $0.95 |
| Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output | $0.65 | $0.74 |
| Context Window | 262.14K | 163.84K |
| Release Date | ||
| Popularity | #76 | #91 |
Use-Case Decision Matrix
| Use case | Better pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Budget-constrained production | Qwen3.6 35B A3B | On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Qwen3.6 35B A3B is estimated at $0.65 vs $0.74 for DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus, saving $0.09 (12.8% lower). |
| High-volume input processing | Qwen3.6 35B A3B | Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill. |
| Long responses and chatbots | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus | Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens. |
| RAG or long-document work | Qwen3.6 35B A3B | A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files. |
Related Alternatives
- Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct (free) can replace Qwen3.6 35B A3B when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B (free) can replace Qwen3.6 35B A3B when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- Qwen2.5 7B Instruct can replace Qwen3.6 35B A3B when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.09.
- Qwen3.5-9B can replace Qwen3.6 35B A3B when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.11.
- Llama 4 Scout offers 10M context with $0.23 sample workload cost.
- Owl Alpha offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
- DeepSeek V4 Flash offers 1.05M context with $0.2 sample workload cost.
- DeepSeek V4 Pro offers 1.05M context with $0.87 sample workload cost.
- DeepSeek V4 Flash · DeepSeek · #1
- Hy3 preview · Tencent · #2
- Claude Opus 4.7 · Anthropic · #3
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 · Anthropic · #4
Cheaper alternatives
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Open DeepSeek modelsQwen3.6-35B-A3B is an open-weight multimodal model from Alibaba Cloud with 35 billion total parameters and 3 billion active parameters per token. It uses a hybrid sparse mixture-of-experts architecture combining Gated...
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