# Gemma 2 9B vs Qwen3.8 Max

> Qwen3.8 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.8 to 25.9 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-2-9b-vs-qwen3-8-max
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 20

## Summary

- They share 20 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 2 9B scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3.8 Max in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Qwen3.8 Max leads 73.2 to 9.9.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 0.6% for Gemma 2 9B and 100% for Qwen3.8 Max.
- Gemma 2 9B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Gemma 2 9B | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 25.9 | 56.8 |
| Rank | 341 | 22 |
| Context | — | 1M |
| Input $/M | — | $2 |
| Output $/M | — | $6 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Gemma 2 9B: 29.4 (#304)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 53.5 (#29)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1173 | 1502 |
| DeepSWE | — | 57.5% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1674 |
| FrontierSWE | — | 17.8% |
| SciCode | — | 53.2% |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 34.7% | — |
| LiveBench Coding | 22.5% | — |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 40.6% | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemma 2 9B: —
- Qwen3.8 Max: 45.4 (#14)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | — | 63.3% |
| τ²-bench Banking | — | 55.1% |
| GDP.pdf | — | 23.2% |

## Reasoning

- Gemma 2 9B: 15.9 (#309)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 54.4 (#26)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1171 | 1496 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 119.83 | 156.41 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 88.3% |
| CritPt | — | 20% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 40% |
| LiveBench Reasoning | 15.2% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 38% |
| DTBench | — | 92% |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | 36.4% | — |
| LMCA | — | 46.2% |
| LiveBench | 28.7% | — |
| PIQA | 83.7% | — |

## Math

- Gemma 2 9B: 9.9 (#318)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 73.2 (#20)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 0.6% | 100% |
| LMArena Math | 1183 | 1499 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 74.7% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | — | 46.3% |
| ProofBench | — | 58% |
| LiveBench Math | 19.8% | — |
| MATH Level 5 | 21% | — |
| GSM8K | 84.9% | — |

## Knowledge

- Gemma 2 9B: 9.7 (#305)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 61.7 (#27)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 27.5% | 92.7% |
| LMArena Expert | 1147 | 1507 |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 47.3% |
| BoolQ | 85.7% | — |
| MMLU | 72.1% | — |

## Multimodal

- Gemma 2 9B: —
- Qwen3.8 Max: 37.2 (#75)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1314 |
| Furniture Assembly | — | 20% |

## Multilingual

- Gemma 2 9B: 36.6 (#238)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 56.7 (#18)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1188 | 1472 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1185 | 1538 |
| LMArena French | 1190 | 1503 |
| LMArena German | 1186 | 1483 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1144 | 1467 |
| LMArena Korean | 1137 | 1461 |
| LMArena Russian | 1200 | 1481 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1200 | 1492 |

## Instruction Following

- Gemma 2 9B: 57.6 (#269)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 77.6 (#17)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1178 | 1479 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | 52.6% | — |

## Long Context

- Gemma 2 9B: 36.3 (#233)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 45.6 (#31)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1197 | 1489 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemma 2 9B: 32.1 (#281)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 67.1 (#30)

| Benchmark | Gemma 2 9B | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1207 | 1483 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1206 | 1479 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1193 | 1489 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 841 | — |
| LiveBench Language | 25.5% | — |

## FAQ

### Is Gemma 2 9B better than Qwen3.8 Max?

Qwen3.8 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.8 to 25.9 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Gemma 2 9B or Qwen3.8 Max better for coding?

Qwen3.8 Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 53.5 versus 29.4 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Gemma 2 9B and Qwen3.8 Max share?

20 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 2 9B has 35 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.8 Max has 39.