Noometry

Model comparison

Gemma 3 4B vs Qwen Max

Qwen Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 34.7 to 28.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 4B costs 56× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 14 shared benchmarks.

Gemma 3 4B Google

28.1

Rank #326 Confirmed

Qwen Max Alibaba (Qwen)

34.7

Rank #230 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 14 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 4B scores higher in 2 categories and Qwen Max in 6 categories; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen Max leads 30.3 to 11.8.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is GPQA Diamond: 23.2% for Gemma 3 4B and 56.1% for Qwen Max.
  • Gemma 3 4B is cheaper at $0.04 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $1.60 / $6.40 for Qwen Max.
  • Gemma 3 4B accepts more context: 131K tokens versus 33K.
  • Gemma 3 4B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Gemma 3 4BQwen Max
ProviderGoogleAlibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index28.134.7
Released2025-03-122024-04-03
WeightsOpenProprietary
Context window131K33K
Max output4K8K
Input $ / M tokens$0.04$1.60
Output $ / M tokens$0.08$6.40
Results tracked2223

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Category by category

Coding Gemma 3 4B leads

Gemma 3 4B: 35.9 (#215), Qwen Max: 30.7 (#292)

BenchmarkGemma 3 4BQwen Max
LMArena Coding12301288
Aider Polyglot—21.8%

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Gemma 3 4B: 20.9 (#142), Qwen Max: —

BenchmarkGemma 3 4BQwen Max
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard19.6%—

Reasoning Qwen Max leads

Gemma 3 4B: 13.2 (#335), Qwen Max: 25.1 (#151)

BenchmarkGemma 3 4BQwen Max
LMArena Hard Prompts12531269
Kagi LLM Benchmark25.2%—
Chess Puzzles0%—
DTBench50.9%—
LMCA2.8%—
Epoch Capabilities Index116.02—

Math Qwen Max leads

Gemma 3 4B: 16.8 (#292), Qwen Max: 22.3 (#276)

BenchmarkGemma 3 4BQwen Max
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-20257.5%16.1%
LMArena Math12391275
MATH Level 5—67.2%
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)—1%

Knowledge Qwen Max leads

Gemma 3 4B: 11.8 (#299), Qwen Max: 30.3 (#228)

BenchmarkGemma 3 4BQwen Max
GPQA Diamond23.2%56.1%
LMArena Expert12231248
Vectara Hallucination Rate6.4%—

Multilingual Too close to call

Gemma 3 4B: 42.5 (#194), Qwen Max: 41.8 (#202)

BenchmarkGemma 3 4BQwen Max
LMArena Non-English12731263
LMArena German12811254
LMArena Russian12941274
LMArena Chinese—1254
LMArena French—1330
LMArena Japanese—1205
LMArena Korean—1142
LMArena Spanish—1290

Instruction Following Qwen Max leads

Gemma 3 4B: 65.2 (#225), Qwen Max: 66.5 (#208)

BenchmarkGemma 3 4BQwen Max
LMArena Instruction Following12391262

Long Context Too close to call

Gemma 3 4B: 38.7 (#194), Qwen Max: 39.4 (#180)

BenchmarkGemma 3 4BQwen Max
LMArena Longer Query12731288
Fiction.LiveBench—66.7%

Writing & Preference Qwen Max leads

Gemma 3 4B: 42.0 (#239), Qwen Max: 47.8 (#205)

BenchmarkGemma 3 4BQwen Max
LMArena Text12911282
LMArena Creative Writing12711248
LMArena Multi-Turn12551277
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1068—

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemma 3 4B better than Qwen Max?

Qwen Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 34.7 to 28.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 4B costs 56× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 4B or Qwen Max?

Gemma 3 4B is cheaper. It lists at $0.04 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens; Qwen Max lists at $1.60 and $6.40.

Is Gemma 3 4B or Qwen Max better for coding?

Gemma 3 4B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 35.9 versus 30.7 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemma 3 4B does, with 131K tokens against 33K.

How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 4B and Qwen Max share?

14 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 4B has 22 scored results on Noometry and Qwen Max has 23.

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