Qwen3.6 27B Environmental Impact
Open-weight dense flagship of the Qwen3.6 line
Energy per query
0.50 Wh
2x more than a Google search (0.3 Wh)
CO2 per query
0.26 g
China grid (525 gCO₂/kWh)
Water per query
2 mL
~526 queries to fill 1 litre
Processing location
Alibaba Cloud (China) / self-hosted
Provider
Alibaba
Category
Text / Chat
Grid carbon intensity
525 g CO2/kWh (33% renewable)
How does Qwen3.6 27B compare?
Detailed Breakdown
Energy Consumption
Qwen3.6 27B is the dense open-weight flagship of the 3.6 line (the 35B-A3B MoE shipped the week before). At ~0.5 Wh per query it continues the trend of small open models matching last-generation frontier quality at a tenth of the energy.
Power Source & Carbon
Alibaba Cloud runs primarily on the Chinese grid (~525 gCO2/kWh, Ember 2026); open weights mean global self-hosting on cleaner grids is common.
Water Usage
At ~1.9 mL per query on Chinese infrastructure (3.7 L/kWh combined water factor).
About Qwen3.6 27B
Qwen3.6 27B is an open-source text and chat model from Alibaba, released in April 22, 2026, that runs well below the category average for energy consumption at 0.50 Wh per query. Because its weights are publicly available, it can be self-hosted on any infrastructure — meaning its carbon footprint depends entirely on where and how you choose to run it. At 27B parameters, it open-weight dense flagship of the qwen3.6 line.
These figures are estimates derived from hardware specifications and API benchmarks — Alibaba has not published official energy data for Qwen3.6 27B. Actual consumption may vary significantly depending on batching, quantisation, and infrastructure optimisations that we cannot observe from outside.
Qwen3.6 27B in Context
Your yearly Qwen3.6 27B footprint
At 25 queries per day, your annual Qwen3.6 27B usage consumes 4.6 kWh — comparable to running a LED light bulb for a month. That produces 2.4 kg of CO₂.
Key Insights
What does your Qwen3.6 27B usage cost the planet?
Use our calculator to estimate your personal environmental footprint based on how often you use Qwen3.6 27B.
Calculate My ComputeFrequently Asked Questions
How much energy does Qwen3.6 27B use per query?
Each Qwen3.6 27B query consumes approximately 0.50 Wh of energy. This is 2x more than a traditional Google search (~0.3 Wh).
What is Qwen3.6 27B's carbon footprint?
Based on the carbon intensity of Alibaba Cloud (China) / self-hosted, each query produces approximately 0.26 g of CO2. The grid in this region has a carbon intensity of 525 g CO2/kWh with 33% renewable energy.
How much water does Qwen3.6 27B use?
Each query consumes approximately 2 mL of water, primarily used for cooling the data centers that process the request.
How does Qwen3.6 27B compare to a Google search?
A Qwen3.6 27B query uses 2x more than a Google search in terms of energy. A Google search uses approximately 0.3 Wh, while Qwen3.6 27B uses 0.50 Wh.
Technical Details
Architecture
Dense Transformer with hybrid thinking
Parameters
27B
Context window
262,000 tokens
Release date
2026-04-22
Open source
Yes
Training data cutoff
2026-03