Model comparison
DeepSeek-V3.1 vs Qwen3 Max
DeepSeek-V3.1 and Qwen3 Max score almost the same on the Noometry Index (42.8 vs 43.7), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.
Last verified . 22 shared benchmarks.
DeepSeek
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 22 benchmarks with published results for both. DeepSeek-V3.1 scores higher in 2 categories and Qwen3 Max in 6 categories; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in long context, where Qwen3 Max leads 41.6 to 36.3.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is Kagi LLM Benchmark: 53.2% for DeepSeek-V3.1 and 72.5% for Qwen3 Max.
- DeepSeek-V3.1 is cheaper at $0.25 / $0.95 per million input/output tokens, against $1.20 / $6 for Qwen3 Max.
- Qwen3 Max accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 164K.
- DeepSeek-V3.1 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| DeepSeek-V3.1 | Qwen3 Max | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | DeepSeek | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 42.8 | 43.7 |
| Released | 2025-08-21 | 2025-09-23 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | 164K | 262K |
| Max output | 8K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.25 | $1.20 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.95 | $6 |
| Results tracked | 27 | 33 |
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Category by category
Coding Qwen3 Max leads
DeepSeek-V3.1: 40.3 (#144), Qwen3 Max: 43.0 (#93)
| Benchmark | DeepSeek-V3.1 | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1417 | 1456 |
| WeirdML | 38.4% | — |
| ALE-Bench | — | 370.45 |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
DeepSeek-V3.1: —, Qwen3 Max: —
| Benchmark | DeepSeek-V3.1 | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 71.56 |
Reasoning DeepSeek-V3.1 leads
DeepSeek-V3.1: 27.9 (#110), Qwen3 Max: 22.6 (#190)
| Benchmark | DeepSeek-V3.1 | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 53.2% | 72.5% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1417 | 1448 |
| DTBench | 82.7% | 82.1% |
| LMCA | 24.3% | 28.3% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 139.92 | 142.38 |
| SimpleBench | 40% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 30.1% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 4% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 5% |
| ForecastBench | 58 | — |
Math Too close to call
DeepSeek-V3.1: 38.9 (#122), Qwen3 Max: 38.7 (#131)
| Benchmark | DeepSeek-V3.1 | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1420 | 1446 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 18.9% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 73.3% |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 97.1% |
Knowledge Qwen3 Max leads
DeepSeek-V3.1: 43.7 (#90), Qwen3 Max: 48.1 (#78)
| Benchmark | DeepSeek-V3.1 | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1405 | 1455 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 72.6% |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 48.7% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 5.5% | — |
Multilingual Qwen3 Max leads
DeepSeek-V3.1: 51.6 (#106), Qwen3 Max: 53.7 (#62)
| Benchmark | DeepSeek-V3.1 | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1400 | 1429 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1469 | 1478 |
| LMArena French | 1447 | 1449 |
| LMArena German | 1411 | 1463 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1378 | 1397 |
| LMArena Korean | 1337 | 1399 |
| LMArena Russian | 1405 | 1428 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1431 | 1462 |
Instruction Following Too close to call
DeepSeek-V3.1: 73.9 (#110), Qwen3 Max: 74.8 (#87)
| Benchmark | DeepSeek-V3.1 | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1400 | 1419 |
Long Context Qwen3 Max leads
DeepSeek-V3.1: 36.3 (#232), Qwen3 Max: 41.6 (#134)
| Benchmark | DeepSeek-V3.1 | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Fiction.LiveBench | 52.8% | 66.7% |
| LMArena Longer Query | 1422 | 1438 |
| CL-bench | — | 14.5% |
Writing & Preference Qwen3 Max leads
DeepSeek-V3.1: 60.3 (#98), Qwen3 Max: 62.4 (#76)
| Benchmark | DeepSeek-V3.1 | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1420 | 1439 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1401 | 1402 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1408 | 1446 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1436 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is DeepSeek-V3.1 better than Qwen3 Max?
DeepSeek-V3.1 and Qwen3 Max score almost the same on the Noometry Index (42.8 vs 43.7), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.
Which is cheaper, DeepSeek-V3.1 or Qwen3 Max?
DeepSeek-V3.1 is cheaper. It lists at $0.25 per million input tokens and $0.95 per million output tokens; Qwen3 Max lists at $1.20 and $6.
Is DeepSeek-V3.1 or Qwen3 Max better for coding?
Qwen3 Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 43.0 versus 40.3 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3 Max does, with 262K tokens against 164K.
How many benchmarks do DeepSeek-V3.1 and Qwen3 Max share?
22 benchmarks have published results for both models. DeepSeek-V3.1 has 27 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 Max has 33.