# Gemma 3 27B vs Qwen3 Max

> Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 30.5 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 27B costs 24× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-3-27b-vs-qwen3-max
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 26

## Summary

- They share 26 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 27B scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3 Max in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen3 Max leads 48.1 to 25.4.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 22.5% for Gemma 3 27B and 73.3% for Qwen3 Max.
- Gemma 3 27B is cheaper at $0.08 / $0.16 per million input/output tokens, against $1.20 / $6 for Qwen3 Max.
- Qwen3 Max accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 131K.
- Gemma 3 27B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Gemma 3 27B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 30.5 | 43.5 |
| Rank | 277 | 82 |
| Context | 131K | 262K |
| Input $/M | $0.08 | $1.20 |
| Output $/M | $0.16 | $6 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Gemma 3 27B: 22.1 (#329)
- Qwen3 Max: 42.4 (#93)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1322 | 1456 |
| Aider Polyglot | 4.9% | — |
| SciCode | 21.2% | — |
| LiveBench Coding | 39.9% | — |
| ALE-Bench | — | 370.45 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemma 3 27B: 24.9 (#105)
- Qwen3 Max: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 29.5% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 71.56 |

## Reasoning

- Gemma 3 27B: 16.3 (#297)
- Qwen3 Max: 22.0 (#186)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 40.4% | 72.5% |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | 4% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1340 | 1448 |
| DTBench | 52.5% | 82.1% |
| LMCA | 12.3% | 28.3% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 130.04 | 142.41 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 30.1% |
| CritPt | 0% | — |
| LiveBench Reasoning | 43.8% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 5% |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | 51.5% | — |
| LiveBench | 50% | — |

## Math

- Gemma 3 27B: 24.4 (#261)
- Qwen3 Max: 37.6 (#94)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 22.5% | 73.3% |
| LMArena Math | 1312 | 1447 |
| MATH Level 5 | 74% | 97.1% |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 18.9% |
| LiveBench Math | 55.4% | — |

## Knowledge

- Gemma 3 27B: 25.4 (#256)
- Qwen3 Max: 48.1 (#72)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 47.7% | 72.6% |
| LMArena Expert | 1303 | 1457 |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 48.7% |
| Confabulations | 40.3% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 7.4% | — |

## Multimodal

- Gemma 3 27B: 32.0 (#94)
- Qwen3 Max: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1165 | — |
| GeoBench | 52% | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemma 3 27B: 47.0 (#150)
- Qwen3 Max: 53.9 (#58)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1334 | 1429 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1347 | 1479 |
| LMArena French | 1368 | 1450 |
| LMArena German | 1362 | 1463 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1287 | 1399 |
| LMArena Korean | 1308 | 1397 |
| LMArena Russian | 1349 | 1428 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1348 | 1463 |

## Instruction Following

- Gemma 3 27B: 70.8 (#155)
- Qwen3 Max: 75.0 (#81)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1321 | 1420 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | 74.9% | — |

## Long Context

- Gemma 3 27B: 27.6 (#288)
- Qwen3 Max: 41.6 (#129)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Fiction.LiveBench | 33.3% | 66.7% |
| LMArena Longer Query | 1333 | 1439 |
| CL-bench | — | 14.5% |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemma 3 27B: 52.7 (#161)
- Qwen3 Max: 62.6 (#72)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 27B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1358 | 1439 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1346 | 1401 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1344 | 1446 |
| Short-Story Creative Writing | 79.9% | — |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1266 | — |
| LiveBench Language | 34.6% | — |

## FAQ

### Is Gemma 3 27B better than Qwen3 Max?

Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 30.5 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 27B costs 24× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 27B or Qwen3 Max?

Gemma 3 27B is cheaper. It lists at $0.08 per million input tokens and $0.16 per million output tokens; Qwen3 Max lists at $1.20 and $6.

### Is Gemma 3 27B or Qwen3 Max better for coding?

Qwen3 Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 22.1 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3 Max does, with 262K tokens against 131K.

### How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 27B and Qwen3 Max share?

26 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 27B has 43 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 Max has 33.