# Gemma 3 4B vs Qwen Max

> Qwen Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 34.7 to 28.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 4B costs 56× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-3-4b-vs-qwen-max
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 14

## Summary

- They share 14 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 4B scores higher in 2 categories and Qwen Max in 6 categories; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen Max leads 30.3 to 11.8.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is GPQA Diamond: 23.2% for Gemma 3 4B and 56.1% for Qwen Max.
- Gemma 3 4B is cheaper at $0.04 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $1.60 / $6.40 for Qwen Max.
- Gemma 3 4B accepts more context: 131K tokens versus 33K.
- Gemma 3 4B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Gemma 3 4B | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 28.1 | 34.7 |
| Rank | 326 | 230 |
| Context | 131K | 33K |
| Input $/M | $0.04 | $1.60 |
| Output $/M | $0.08 | $6.40 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Gemma 3 4B: 35.9 (#215)
- Qwen Max: 30.7 (#292)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1230 | 1288 |
| Aider Polyglot | — | 21.8% |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemma 3 4B: 20.9 (#142)
- Qwen Max: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 19.6% | — |

## Reasoning

- Gemma 3 4B: 13.2 (#335)
- Qwen Max: 25.1 (#151)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1253 | 1269 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 25.2% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| DTBench | 50.9% | — |
| LMCA | 2.8% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 116.02 | — |

## Math

- Gemma 3 4B: 16.8 (#292)
- Qwen Max: 22.3 (#276)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 7.5% | 16.1% |
| LMArena Math | 1239 | 1275 |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 67.2% |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | — | 1% |

## Knowledge

- Gemma 3 4B: 11.8 (#299)
- Qwen Max: 30.3 (#228)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 23.2% | 56.1% |
| LMArena Expert | 1223 | 1248 |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 6.4% | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemma 3 4B: 42.5 (#194)
- Qwen Max: 41.8 (#202)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1273 | 1263 |
| LMArena German | 1281 | 1254 |
| LMArena Russian | 1294 | 1274 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1254 |
| LMArena French | — | 1330 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1205 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1142 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1290 |

## Instruction Following

- Gemma 3 4B: 65.2 (#225)
- Qwen Max: 66.5 (#208)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1239 | 1262 |

## Long Context

- Gemma 3 4B: 38.7 (#194)
- Qwen Max: 39.4 (#180)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1273 | 1288 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | — | 66.7% |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemma 3 4B: 42.0 (#239)
- Qwen Max: 47.8 (#205)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 4B | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1291 | 1282 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1271 | 1248 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1255 | 1277 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1068 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Gemma 3 4B better than Qwen Max?

Qwen Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 34.7 to 28.1 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 4B costs 56× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 4B or Qwen Max?

Gemma 3 4B is cheaper. It lists at $0.04 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens; Qwen Max lists at $1.60 and $6.40.

### Is Gemma 3 4B or Qwen Max better for coding?

Gemma 3 4B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 35.9 versus 30.7 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Gemma 3 4B does, with 131K tokens against 33K.

### How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 4B and Qwen Max share?

14 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 4B has 22 scored results on Noometry and Qwen Max has 23.