Model comparison

DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus vs Qwen3 Max

DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus and Qwen3 Max score almost the same on the Noometry Index (42.6 vs 43.5), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

Last verified October 10, 2026. 14 shared benchmarks.

DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus

DeepSeek

42.6

Rank #96 Confirmed

Qwen3 Max

Alibaba (Qwen)

43.5

Rank #82 Confirmed

Summary

They share 14 benchmarks with published results for both. DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus scores higher in 2 categories and Qwen3 Max in 5 categories; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in reasoning, where DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus leads 25.7 to 22.0.
The biggest single-benchmark swing is Kagi LLM Benchmark: 57.4% for DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus and 72.5% for Qwen3 Max.
DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus is cheaper at $0.30 / $1 per million input/output tokens, against $1.20 / $6 for Qwen3 Max.
Qwen3 Max accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 164K.
DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus and Qwen3 Max specifications
	DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus	Qwen3 Max
Provider	DeepSeek	Alibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index	42.6	43.5
Released	2025-09-22	2025-09-23
Weights	Open	Proprietary
Context window	164K	262K
Max output	66K	66K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.30	$1.20
Output $ / M tokens	$1	$6
Results tracked	16	33

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Category by category

Coding Too close to call

DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus: 41.5 (#114), Qwen3 Max: 42.4 (#93)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus	Qwen3 Max
LMArena Coding	1426	1456
ALE-Bench	745.17	370.45
SciCode	40.6%	—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus: —, Qwen3 Max: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus	Qwen3 Max
Vending-Bench 2	—	71.56

Reasoning DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus leads

DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus: 25.7 (#126), Qwen3 Max: 22.0 (#186)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus	Qwen3 Max
Kagi LLM Benchmark	57.4%	72.5%
LMArena Hard Prompts	1427	1448
DTBench	81.3%	82.1%
LMCA	28.6%	28.3%
NYT Connections (extended)	—	30.1%
CritPt	1.7%	—
Chess Puzzles	—	4%
Mystery Game Puzzles	—	5%
Epoch Capabilities Index	—	142.41

Math Qwen3 Max leads

DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus: 35.7 (#138), Qwen3 Max: 37.6 (#94)

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus	Qwen3 Max
LMArena Math	1402	1447
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)	—	18.9%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025	—	73.3%
MATH Level 5	—	97.1%

Knowledge Not comparable

DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus: —, Qwen3 Max: 48.1 (#72)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus	Qwen3 Max
GPQA Diamond	—	72.6%
SimpleQA Verified	—	48.7%
LMArena Expert	—	1457

Multilingual Qwen3 Max leads

DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus: 52.3 (#87), Qwen3 Max: 53.9 (#58)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus	Qwen3 Max
LMArena Non-English	1407	1429
LMArena Russian	1434	1428
LMArena Chinese	—	1479
LMArena French	—	1450
LMArena German	—	1463
LMArena Japanese	—	1399
LMArena Korean	—	1397
LMArena Spanish	—	1463

Instruction Following Too close to call

DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus: 74.4 (#96), Qwen3 Max: 75.0 (#81)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus	Qwen3 Max
LMArena Instruction Following	1406	1420

Long Context DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus leads

DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus: 43.5 (#88), Qwen3 Max: 41.6 (#129)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus	Qwen3 Max
LMArena Longer Query	1426	1439
Fiction.LiveBench	—	66.7%
CL-bench	—	14.5%

Writing & Preference Qwen3 Max leads

DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus: 61.3 (#87), Qwen3 Max: 62.6 (#72)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus	Qwen3 Max
LMArena Text	1420	1439
LMArena Creative Writing	1404	1401
LMArena Multi-Turn	1411	1446

Frequently asked questions

Is DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus better than Qwen3 Max?

DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus and Qwen3 Max score almost the same on the Noometry Index (42.6 vs 43.5), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

Which is cheaper, DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus or Qwen3 Max?

DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $1 per million output tokens; Qwen3 Max lists at $1.20 and $6.

Is DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus or Qwen3 Max better for coding?

They score almost the same on coding (41.5 vs 42.4); test both on your own repository before choosing.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3 Max does, with 262K tokens against 164K.

How many benchmarks do DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus and Qwen3 Max share?

14 benchmarks have published results for both models. DeepSeek-V3.1-Terminus has 16 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 Max has 33.