Model comparison

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT vs Qwen3 Max

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT and Qwen3 Max score almost the same on the Noometry Index (43.1 vs 43.5), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

Last verified October 10, 2026. 21 shared benchmarks.

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT

Google

43.1

Rank #88 Confirmed

Qwen3 Max

Alibaba (Qwen)

43.5

Rank #82 Confirmed

Summary

They share 21 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 4 26B A4B IT scores higher in 3 categories and Qwen3 Max in 5 categories; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
The widest gap is in math, where Gemma 4 26B A4B IT leads 45.7 to 37.6.
The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 82.2% for Gemma 4 26B A4B IT and 73.3% for Qwen3 Max.
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT is cheaper at $0.0765 / $0.26 per million input/output tokens, against $1.20 / $6 for Qwen3 Max.
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT and Qwen3 Max specifications
	Gemma 4 26B A4B IT	Qwen3 Max
Provider	Google	Alibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index	43.1	43.5
Released	2026-04-02	2025-09-23
Weights	Open	Proprietary
Context window	262K	262K
Max output	33K	66K
Input $ / M tokens	$0.0765	$1.20
Output $ / M tokens	$0.26	$6
Results tracked	28	33

Sponsored placements are available on pages like this one. Advertise on Noometry

Category by category

Coding Qwen3 Max leads

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 38.8 (#156), Qwen3 Max: 42.4 (#93)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 4 26B A4B IT	Qwen3 Max
LMArena Coding	1446	1456
ALE-Bench	927.17	370.45
LMArena WebDev	1359	—
SciCode	40%	—
WeirdML	35.2%	—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: —, Qwen3 Max: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 4 26B A4B IT	Qwen3 Max
Vending-Bench 2	—	71.56

Reasoning Too close to call

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 21.1 (#205), Qwen3 Max: 22.0 (#186)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 4 26B A4B IT	Qwen3 Max
Chess Puzzles	6%	4%
LMArena Hard Prompts	1438	1448
DTBench	74.9%	82.1%
LMCA	29.7%	28.3%
Epoch Capabilities Index	141.85	142.41
Kagi LLM Benchmark	—	72.5%
NYT Connections (extended)	—	30.1%
CritPt	0%	—
Mystery Game Puzzles	—	5%

Math Gemma 4 26B A4B IT leads

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 45.7 (#61), Qwen3 Max: 37.6 (#94)

Math benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 4 26B A4B IT	Qwen3 Max
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025	82.2%	73.3%
LMArena Math	1469	1447
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)	—	18.9%
MATH Level 5	—	97.1%

Knowledge Qwen3 Max leads

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 45.6 (#79), Qwen3 Max: 48.1 (#72)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 4 26B A4B IT	Qwen3 Max
GPQA Diamond	73.2%	72.6%
LMArena Expert	1447	1457
SimpleQA Verified	—	48.7%
Vectara Hallucination Rate	5.2%	—

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 39.9 (#43), Qwen3 Max: —

Multimodal benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 4 26B A4B IT	Qwen3 Max
LMArena Vision	1260	—

Multilingual Too close to call

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 53.3 (#68), Qwen3 Max: 53.9 (#58)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 4 26B A4B IT	Qwen3 Max
LMArena Non-English	1422	1429
LMArena Chinese	1495	1479
LMArena French	1459	1450
LMArena Russian	1434	1428
LMArena Spanish	1415	1463
LMArena German	—	1463
LMArena Japanese	—	1399
LMArena Korean	—	1397

Instruction Following Too close to call

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 75.0 (#78), Qwen3 Max: 75.0 (#81)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 4 26B A4B IT	Qwen3 Max
LMArena Instruction Following	1420	1420

Long Context Gemma 4 26B A4B IT leads

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 43.6 (#87), Qwen3 Max: 41.6 (#129)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 4 26B A4B IT	Qwen3 Max
LMArena Longer Query	1427	1439
Fiction.LiveBench	—	66.7%
CL-bench	—	14.5%

Writing & Preference Qwen3 Max leads

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 58.8 (#110), Qwen3 Max: 62.6 (#72)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmark	Gemma 4 26B A4B IT	Qwen3 Max
LMArena Text	1434	1439
LMArena Creative Writing	1401	1401
LMArena Multi-Turn	1442	1446
EQ-Bench Creative Writing	1305	—

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemma 4 26B A4B IT better than Qwen3 Max?

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT and Qwen3 Max score almost the same on the Noometry Index (43.1 vs 43.5), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

Which is cheaper, Gemma 4 26B A4B IT or Qwen3 Max?

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT is cheaper. It lists at $0.0765 per million input tokens and $0.26 per million output tokens; Qwen3 Max lists at $1.20 and $6.

Is Gemma 4 26B A4B IT or Qwen3 Max better for coding?

Qwen3 Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 38.8 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Both accept 262K tokens.

How many benchmarks do Gemma 4 26B A4B IT and Qwen3 Max share?

21 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 4 26B A4B IT has 28 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 Max has 33.