Developer Switches from Cursor Composer 2 and Kimi 2.6 to Qwen3.6:35b-a3b for Enterprise Workloads

A developer on r/LocalLLaMA reports successfully replacing Cursor Composer 2 and Kimi 2.6 with Qwen3.6:35b-a3b for daily software development on a 500,000-700,000 line enterprise codebase (60 hours/week). The user previously tried Kimi 2.6 and DeepSeek 4 Pro/Flash but found Qwen3.6:35b-a3b to be the best fit.

Key Details

• Model: Qwen3.6:35b-a3b (the 3.6 version with 35b parameters and a 3b activated subset via MoE? — the user's notation is ambiguous; likely Qwen2.5-32B or a custom variant). The model supports image/screenshot input.
• Hosting: Run via OpenRouter at approximately $0.08 per 1M tokens averaged after caching and billing adjustments. The user lacks hardware for local inference.
• Workload: Full-time development on a large enterprise software suite. The user claims the model “actually understands” the codebase and task context, surpassing prior options.
• Missing feature: The only drawback noted is the lack of Cursor's cloud agents functionality and high throughput on Composer 2.

Cost Comparison

At ~$0.08/1M tokens, Qwen3.6:35b-a3b is described as “insanely cheap” for its capability level. No exact breakdown is given, but caching and usage discounts apply.

Who It's For

Developers working with large proprietary codebases who want a capable, low-cost model for AI-assisted coding without requiring local GPU hardware.