Model comparison

o3-mini vs Qwen3 Max

Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.7 to 36.7 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 28 shared benchmarks.

o3-mini OpenAI

36.7

Rank #212 Confirmed

Qwen3 Max Alibaba (Qwen)

43.7

Rank #87 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 28 benchmarks with published results for both. o3-mini scores higher in 1 category and Qwen3 Max in 7 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Qwen3 Max leads 62.4 to 50.3.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is SimpleQA Verified: 15.3% for o3-mini and 48.7% for Qwen3 Max.
  • o3-mini is cheaper at $1.10 / $4.40 per million input/output tokens, against $1.20 / $6 for Qwen3 Max.
  • Qwen3 Max accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 200K.

Side by side

o3-mini and Qwen3 Max specifications
o3-miniQwen3 Max
ProviderOpenAIAlibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index36.743.7
Released2024-12-202025-09-23
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
Context window200K262K
Max output100K66K
Input $ / M tokens$1.10$1.20
Output $ / M tokens$4.40$6
Results tracked5133

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Category by category

Coding Qwen3 Max leads

o3-mini: 40.8 (#132), Qwen3 Max: 43.0 (#93)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmarko3-miniQwen3 Max
LMArena Coding13781456
Aider Polyglot60.4%—
SciCode39.8%—
GSO1.3%—
WeirdML43.7%—
LiveBench Coding82.7%—
CadEval54%—
ALE-Bench—370.45

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

o3-mini: 29.6 (#84), Qwen3 Max: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmarko3-miniQwen3 Max
Cybench22.5%—
Vending-Bench 2—71.56

Reasoning Qwen3 Max leads

o3-mini: 16.3 (#305), Qwen3 Max: 22.6 (#190)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmarko3-miniQwen3 Max
Chess Puzzles17%4%
LMArena Hard Prompts13661448
Mystery Game Puzzles7%5%
DTBench68.8%82.1%
LMCA19%28.3%
Epoch Capabilities Index140.34142.38
ARC-AGI-23%—
SimpleBench22.8%—
Kagi LLM Benchmark—72.5%
NYT Connections (extended)—30.1%
ARC-AGI-134.5%—
CritPt0.3%—
LiveBench Reasoning89.6%—
LiveBench Data Analysis70.6%—
ForecastBench59.6—
LiveBench75.9%—

Math Qwen3 Max leads

o3-mini: 28.1 (#244), Qwen3 Max: 38.7 (#131)

Math benchmarks
Benchmarko3-miniQwen3 Max
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)18.6%18.9%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202576.9%73.3%
LMArena Math13961446
MATH Level 596.5%97.1%
FrontierMath Tier 40%—
LiveBench Math77.3%—
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)12.4%—
FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1)4.2%—

Knowledge Qwen3 Max leads

o3-mini: 38.3 (#146), Qwen3 Max: 48.1 (#78)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmarko3-miniQwen3 Max
GPQA Diamond77%72.6%
SimpleQA Verified15.3%48.7%
LMArena Expert13641455
Confabulations17.9%—

Multilingual Qwen3 Max leads

o3-mini: 45.7 (#164), Qwen3 Max: 53.7 (#62)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmarko3-miniQwen3 Max
LMArena Non-English13191429
LMArena Chinese13791478
LMArena French13341449
LMArena German13031463
LMArena Japanese12861397
LMArena Korean13141399
LMArena Russian13041428
LMArena Spanish13211462

Instruction Following Too close to call

o3-mini: 75.1 (#72), Qwen3 Max: 74.8 (#87)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmarko3-miniQwen3 Max
LMArena Instruction Following13371419
LiveBench Instruction Following84.4%—

Long Context Qwen3 Max leads

o3-mini: 33.8 (#256), Qwen3 Max: 41.6 (#134)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmarko3-miniQwen3 Max
Fiction.LiveBench50%66.7%
LMArena Longer Query13431438
CL-bench—14.5%

Writing & Preference Qwen3 Max leads

o3-mini: 50.3 (#182), Qwen3 Max: 62.4 (#76)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmarko3-miniQwen3 Max
LMArena Text13371439
LMArena Creative Writing12861402
LMArena Multi-Turn13201446
Short-Story Creative Writing61.7%—
LiveBench Language50.7%—

Frequently asked questions

Is o3-mini better than Qwen3 Max?

Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.7 to 36.7 on the Noometry Index.

Which is cheaper, o3-mini or Qwen3 Max?

o3-mini is cheaper. It lists at $1.10 per million input tokens and $4.40 per million output tokens; Qwen3 Max lists at $1.20 and $6.

Is o3-mini or Qwen3 Max better for coding?

Qwen3 Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 43.0 versus 40.8 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3 Max does, with 262K tokens against 200K.

How many benchmarks do o3-mini and Qwen3 Max share?

28 benchmarks have published results for both models. o3-mini has 51 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 Max has 33.

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