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© 2026 CompareLLM. Public benchmark data aggregated from Arena Elo, LiveBench, SWE-bench & OpenRouter.

Every score has a dated snapshot.

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  2. Comparisons
  3. Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs Yi-Lightning

Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 17, 2026noindex (thin pair)

Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs Yi-Lightning benchmark

In this head-to-head showdown, Yi-Lightning is more budget-friendly at $0.14/1M per 1M output tokens. Review the complete breakdown below to determine which model best fits your performance and budget requirements.

Executive Comparison Verdict

Bottom Line: Choose Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3B if your priority is peak reasoning, complex code generation, and top preference Elo. Choose Yi-Lightning if you are optimizing for low latency, high throughput, and cost-efficient API deployment.
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Verified Head-to-Head Advantage Breakdown

2 direct benchmark disciplines evaluated across capability, speed, and cost

Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3B (1)Yi-Lightning (1)
Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3B
1 of 2 Wins
✓Context window
Yi-Lightning
1 of 2 Wins
✓Output price
Alibaba
Leads 1 of 2 metrics
Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3B

Auto-discovered from OpenRouter (qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b). Preview until a second source matches.

$1/1M out
01.AI
Leads 1 of 2 metrics
Yi-Lightning

01.AI ultra-fast reasoning model delivering top LiveBench efficiency.

LightningElo 1,475$0.14/1M out
Top Rival Showdowns for Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3B
All Matchups
Compare vs:vs Claude Opus 4.5vs GPT-5vs Gemini 3 Provs Grok 4.6vs DeepSeek V4 Pro
Preference Leader

No shared data

Single model data

Throughput Leader

No shared data

No latency data

Value per Dollar LeaderYi-Lightning Wins

Yi-Lightning

$0.14 / 1M output

Capability Percentiles

Relative percentile scores computed across all active models in the benchmark catalog.

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Leaders Matchup Capability Radar

Comparing top Western standard models with China's leading frontier rival across 6 skill dimensions. Tap any spoke or dot to inspect.

Tap any node to inspect
0–100 %ile
Head-to-Head Comparison

Overall Matchup Breakdown

Category wins across reasoning intelligence, generation speed, and token cost.

Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3B (1)vsYi-Lightning (8)
Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3B: 1W (11%)Overall: Yi-LightningYi-Lightning: 8W (89%)
← Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3B1 tiesYi-Lightning →
🏆Yi-Lightning(5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Benchmark
Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3BvsYi-Lightning
Preference Elo
—vs1,475
Coding Elo
—vs1,480
SWE-bench
—vs63.4%
LiveBench
—vs65%
GPQA Diamond
—vs78%
Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3B: 0WYi-Lightning: 5W
🏆Yi-Lightning(2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Benchmark
Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3BvsYi-Lightning
Output speed
—vs130 tok/s
Time to first token
—vs150 ms
Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3B: 0WYi-Lightning: 2W
Tied (1-1)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Benchmark
Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3BvsYi-Lightning
Output price
$1/1Mvs$0.14/1M+$0.86/1M
Input price
$0.14/1Mvs$0.14/1M
Context window
262kvs16k+246k
Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3B: 1WYi-Lightning: 1W

Side-by-Side Benchmark Matrix

Preference Elo
Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3B—
Yi-Lightning1,475
lmarena · Aug 17, 2026
Coding Elo
Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3B—
Yi-Lightning1,480
lmarena · Aug 17, 2026
LiveBench
Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3B—
Yi-Lightning65%
livebench · Aug 17, 2026
SWE-bench
Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3B—
Yi-Lightning63.4%
swebench · Aug 17, 2026
GPQA Diamond
Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3B—
Yi-Lightning78%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Time to first token
Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3B—
Yi-Lightning150 ms
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Output speed
Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3B—
Yi-Lightning130 tok/s
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Input price
Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3B$0.14/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
Yi-Lightning$0.14/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Output price+$0.86/1M
Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3B$1/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
Yi-Lightning$0.14/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Context window+246k
Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3B262k
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
Yi-Lightning16k
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
BenchmarkQwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3BYi-LightningAdvantage Delta
Preference Elo—
1,475
lmarena · Aug 17, 2026
—
Coding Elo—
1,480
lmarena · Aug 17, 2026
—
LiveBench—
65%
livebench · Aug 17, 2026
—
SWE-bench—
63.4%
swebench · Aug 17, 2026
—
GPQA Diamond—
78%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
—
Time to first token—
150 ms
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
—
Output speed—
130 tok/s
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
—
Input price
$0.14/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
$0.14/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
—
Output price
$1/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
$0.14/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
+$0.86/1M
Context window
262k
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
16k
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
+246k
Interactive Simulator (USD)

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Simulate monthly production API costs in USD (US Dollar).

Save up to 65% with Yi-Lightning
Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo
Quick Presets:
Token Ratio (In vs Out)70% In / 30% Out
RAG / Search (10% out)Coding / Chat (50% out)
Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3B$19.90 / mo
In: $4.9Out: $15
Yi-Lightning$7.00 / mo
In: $4.9Out: $2.1
Estimated Cost Delta

Yi-Lightning is estimated to save $12.90/month ($155/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

  • 1
    Yi-Lightning:Pick Yi-Lightning when you are optimizing output cost.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsinsufficient data

Need SWE-bench on both sides.

High-volume chatYi-Lightning

Lower output list price ($0.14/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIinsufficient data

Need TTFT on both sides.

Long-document RAGQwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3B

Larger window (262k).

Screenshots / visionYi-Lightning

Yi-Lightning is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target WorkloadRecommended PickEvaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agentsinsufficient dataNeed SWE-bench on both sides.
High-volume chatYi-LightningLower output list price ($0.14/1M).
Voice / low-latency UIinsufficient dataNeed TTFT on both sides.
Long-document RAGQwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3BLarger window (262k).
Screenshots / visionYi-LightningYi-Lightning is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.
Community Sentiment

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CompareLLM AI Matrix

Verified Head-to-Head Telemetry

LIVE BENCHMARK
VS
Alibaba

Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3B

Elo n/a
SWE-bench—
Speed (tok/s)262k
Input / 1M Tokens$0.14/1M
Output / 1M Tokens$1/1M
01.AI

Yi-Lightning

Elo 1,475
SWE-bench63.4%
Speed (tok/s)130 tok/s
Input / 1M Tokens$0.14/1M
Output / 1M Tokens$0.14/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3B or Yi-Lightning?
We do not have preference Elo for both models, so we do not declare an overall winner. Compare the metrics that exist.
Which is better at coding, Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3B or Yi-Lightning?
SWE-bench is missing for at least one model, so we do not rank coding from a single number.
Which is cheaper to run in production?
Yi-Lightning output tokens are $0.14/1M versus $1/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3B or Yi-Lightning?
We do not have TTFT for both models.
Which has the larger context window?
Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3B accepts 262k tokens versus 16k.
Can I self-host either model?
Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.
Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?
No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.
What does preference Elo mean on this page?
Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3B and Yi-Lightning Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3B matchups →|All Yi-Lightning matchups →
Yi-Lightning vs Yi-Large (previous other)Yi-Lightning vs Ernie 4.5 Turbo (next other)Qwen 3 Max vs Yi-LightningQwen QwQ 32B vs Yi-LightningQwen 2.5 Plus vs Yi-LightningQwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct vs Yi-Lightning