Model comparison
Qwen3 32B vs Qwen3 Max
Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.7 to 39.2 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3 32B costs 2.0× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 21 shared benchmarks.
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 21 benchmarks with published results for both. Qwen3 32B scores higher in 2 categories and Qwen3 Max in 6 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Qwen3 Max leads 62.4 to 52.9.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is Kagi LLM Benchmark: 54.9% for Qwen3 32B and 72.5% for Qwen3 Max.
- Qwen3 32B is cheaper at $0.70 / $2.80 per million input/output tokens, against $1.20 / $6 for Qwen3 Max.
- Qwen3 Max accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 131K.
- Qwen3 32B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Qwen3 32B | Qwen3 Max | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 39.2 | 43.7 |
| Released | 2025-04 | 2025-09-23 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | 131K | 262K |
| Max output | 16K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.70 | $1.20 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $2.80 | $6 |
| Results tracked | 26 | 33 |
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Category by category
Coding Qwen3 Max leads
Qwen3 32B: 37.7 (#190), Qwen3 Max: 43.0 (#93)
| Benchmark | Qwen3 32B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1358 | 1456 |
| Aider Polyglot | 40% | — |
| SciCode | 35.4% | — |
| ALE-Bench | — | 370.45 |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Qwen3 32B: 32.6 (#62), Qwen3 Max: —
| Benchmark | Qwen3 32B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 48.7% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 71.56 |
Reasoning Qwen3 Max leads
Qwen3 32B: 20.2 (#241), Qwen3 Max: 22.6 (#190)
| Benchmark | Qwen3 32B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 54.9% | 72.5% |
| Chess Puzzles | 5% | 4% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1334 | 1448 |
| DTBench | 67.5% | 82.1% |
| LMCA | 17.3% | 28.3% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 138.51 | 142.38 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 30.1% |
| CritPt | 0.3% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 5% |
Math Too close to call
Qwen3 32B: 39.7 (#99), Qwen3 Max: 38.7 (#131)
| Benchmark | Qwen3 32B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 66.9% | 73.3% |
| LMArena Math | 1399 | 1446 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 18.9% |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 97.1% |
Knowledge Qwen3 Max leads
Qwen3 32B: 40.0 (#125), Qwen3 Max: 48.1 (#78)
| Benchmark | Qwen3 32B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 65.7% | 72.6% |
| LMArena Expert | 1362 | 1455 |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 48.7% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 5.9% | — |
Multilingual Qwen3 Max leads
Qwen3 32B: 45.6 (#167), Qwen3 Max: 53.7 (#62)
| Benchmark | Qwen3 32B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1317 | 1429 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1357 | 1478 |
| LMArena German | 1341 | 1463 |
| LMArena Russian | 1311 | 1428 |
| LMArena French | — | 1449 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1397 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1399 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1462 |
Instruction Following Qwen3 Max leads
Qwen3 32B: 68.9 (#179), Qwen3 Max: 74.8 (#87)
| Benchmark | Qwen3 32B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1305 | 1419 |
Long Context Qwen3 32B leads
Qwen3 32B: 43.8 (#87), Qwen3 Max: 41.6 (#134)
| Benchmark | Qwen3 32B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Fiction.LiveBench | 74.2% | 66.7% |
| LMArena Longer Query | 1327 | 1438 |
| CL-bench | — | 14.5% |
Writing & Preference Qwen3 Max leads
Qwen3 32B: 52.9 (#163), Qwen3 Max: 62.4 (#76)
| Benchmark | Qwen3 32B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1340 | 1439 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1297 | 1402 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1331 | 1446 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Qwen3 32B better than Qwen3 Max?
Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.7 to 39.2 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3 32B costs 2.0× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3 32B or Qwen3 Max?
Qwen3 32B is cheaper. It lists at $0.70 per million input tokens and $2.80 per million output tokens; Qwen3 Max lists at $1.20 and $6.
Is Qwen3 32B or Qwen3 Max better for coding?
Qwen3 Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 43.0 versus 37.7 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3 Max does, with 262K tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks do Qwen3 32B and Qwen3 Max share?
21 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen3 32B has 26 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 Max has 33.