Model comparison
Gemma 2 27B vs Qwen3 Max
Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.7 to 29.4 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 2 27B costs 3.7× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 23 shared benchmarks.
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Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 23 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 2 27B scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3 Max in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen3 Max leads 48.1 to 19.0.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 1.4% for Gemma 2 27B and 73.3% for Qwen3 Max.
- Gemma 2 27B is cheaper at $0.65 / $0.65 per million input/output tokens, against $1.20 / $6 for Qwen3 Max.
- Qwen3 Max accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 8K.
- Gemma 2 27B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Gemma 2 27B | Qwen3 Max | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | |
| Noometry Index | 29.4 | 43.7 |
| Released | 2024-06-24 | 2025-09-23 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | 8K | 262K |
| Max output | 2K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.65 | $1.20 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.65 | $6 |
| Results tracked | 34 | 33 |
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Category by category
Coding Qwen3 Max leads
Gemma 2 27B: 34.1 (#246), Qwen3 Max: 43.0 (#93)
| Benchmark | Gemma 2 27B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1211 | 1456 |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 42.8% | — |
| LiveBench Coding | 36% | — |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 52.5% | — |
| ALE-Bench | — | 370.45 |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Gemma 2 27B: —, Qwen3 Max: —
| Benchmark | Gemma 2 27B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 71.56 |
Reasoning Qwen3 Max leads
Gemma 2 27B: 15.3 (#315), Qwen3 Max: 22.6 (#190)
| Benchmark | Gemma 2 27B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1198 | 1448 |
| DTBench | 48% | 82.1% |
| LMCA | 7.1% | 28.3% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 122.08 | 142.38 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 72.5% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 30.1% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 4% |
| LiveBench Reasoning | 28.1% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 5% |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | 47.9% | — |
| LiveBench | 38.2% | — |
Math Qwen3 Max leads
Gemma 2 27B: 10.7 (#311), Qwen3 Max: 38.7 (#131)
| Benchmark | Gemma 2 27B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 1.4% | 73.3% |
| LMArena Math | 1212 | 1446 |
| MATH Level 5 | 27.9% | 97.1% |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 18.9% |
| LiveBench Math | 26.5% | — |
Knowledge Qwen3 Max leads
Gemma 2 27B: 19.0 (#280), Qwen3 Max: 48.1 (#78)
| Benchmark | Gemma 2 27B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 36.5% | 72.6% |
| LMArena Expert | 1172 | 1455 |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 48.7% |
| Confabulations | 27.1% | — |
| MMLU | 75.7% | — |
Multilingual Qwen3 Max leads
Gemma 2 27B: 38.6 (#226), Qwen3 Max: 53.7 (#62)
| Benchmark | Gemma 2 27B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1217 | 1429 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1221 | 1478 |
| LMArena French | 1247 | 1449 |
| LMArena German | 1209 | 1463 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1175 | 1397 |
| LMArena Korean | 1174 | 1399 |
| LMArena Russian | 1234 | 1428 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1228 | 1462 |
Instruction Following Qwen3 Max leads
Gemma 2 27B: 60.5 (#249), Qwen3 Max: 74.8 (#87)
| Benchmark | Gemma 2 27B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1206 | 1419 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | 58.1% | — |
Long Context Qwen3 Max leads
Gemma 2 27B: 37.3 (#218), Qwen3 Max: 41.6 (#134)
| Benchmark | Gemma 2 27B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1231 | 1438 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | — | 66.7% |
| CL-bench | — | 14.5% |
Writing & Preference Qwen3 Max leads
Gemma 2 27B: 44.2 (#225), Qwen3 Max: 62.4 (#76)
| Benchmark | Gemma 2 27B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1231 | 1439 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1241 | 1402 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1224 | 1446 |
| LiveBench Language | 32.6% | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemma 2 27B better than Qwen3 Max?
Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.7 to 29.4 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 2 27B costs 3.7× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Gemma 2 27B or Qwen3 Max?
Gemma 2 27B is cheaper. It lists at $0.65 per million input tokens and $0.65 per million output tokens; Qwen3 Max lists at $1.20 and $6.
Is Gemma 2 27B or Qwen3 Max better for coding?
Qwen3 Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 43.0 versus 34.1 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3 Max does, with 262K tokens against 8K.
How many benchmarks do Gemma 2 27B and Qwen3 Max share?
23 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 2 27B has 34 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 Max has 33.