# Llama 3-8B vs Qwen3 Max

> Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 25.3 on the Noometry Index. Llama 3-8B costs 17× 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/llama-3-8b-vs-qwen3-max
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 23

## Summary

- They share 23 benchmarks with published results for both. Llama 3-8B 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 7.8.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is MATH Level 5: 6.1% for Llama 3-8B and 97.1% for Qwen3 Max.
- Llama 3-8B is cheaper at $0.14 / $0.14 per million input/output tokens, against $1.20 / $6 for Qwen3 Max.
- Qwen3 Max accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 8K.
- Llama 3-8B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Llama 3-8B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Meta | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 25.3 | 43.5 |
| Rank | 338 | 82 |
| Context | 8K | 262K |
| Input $/M | $0.14 | $1.20 |
| Output $/M | $0.14 | $6 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Llama 3-8B: 30.5 (#285)
- Qwen3 Max: 42.4 (#93)

| Benchmark | Llama 3-8B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1152 | 1456 |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 31.9% | — |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 36.9% | — |
| ALE-Bench | — | 370.45 |
| HumanEval+ | 56.7% | — |
| MBPP+ | 54.8% | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Llama 3-8B: —
- Qwen3 Max: —

| Benchmark | Llama 3-8B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 71.56 |

## Reasoning

- Llama 3-8B: 13.8 (#321)
- Qwen3 Max: 22.0 (#186)

| Benchmark | Llama 3-8B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | 4% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1133 | 1448 |
| DTBench | 43.9% | 82.1% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 116.33 | 142.41 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 72.5% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 30.1% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 5% |
| LMCA | — | 28.3% |
| Adversarial NLI | 57.3% | — |
| ForecastBench | 58.6 | — |
| WinoGrande | 75.7% | — |

## Math

- Llama 3-8B: 8.3 (#317)
- Qwen3 Max: 37.6 (#94)

| Benchmark | Llama 3-8B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 1.9% | 73.3% |
| LMArena Math | 1151 | 1447 |
| MATH Level 5 | 6.1% | 97.1% |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 18.9% |

## Knowledge

- Llama 3-8B: 7.8 (#303)
- Qwen3 Max: 48.1 (#72)

| Benchmark | Llama 3-8B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 26.1% | 72.6% |
| LMArena Expert | 1113 | 1457 |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 48.7% |
| ARC (AI2) Challenge | 82.8% | — |
| MMLU | 68.8% | — |
| OpenBookQA | 82.6% | — |
| TriviaQA | 67.7% | — |

## Multilingual

- Llama 3-8B: 31.0 (#256)
- Qwen3 Max: 53.9 (#58)

| Benchmark | Llama 3-8B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1098 | 1429 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1076 | 1479 |
| LMArena French | 1158 | 1450 |
| LMArena German | 1104 | 1463 |
| LMArena Japanese | 967 | 1399 |
| LMArena Korean | 1003 | 1397 |
| LMArena Russian | 1109 | 1428 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1172 | 1463 |

## Instruction Following

- Llama 3-8B: 58.7 (#255)
- Qwen3 Max: 75.0 (#81)

| Benchmark | Llama 3-8B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1127 | 1420 |

## Long Context

- Llama 3-8B: 34.2 (#246)
- Qwen3 Max: 41.6 (#129)

| Benchmark | Llama 3-8B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1128 | 1439 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | — | 66.7% |
| CL-bench | — | 14.5% |

## Writing & Preference

- Llama 3-8B: 37.7 (#251)
- Qwen3 Max: 62.6 (#72)

| Benchmark | Llama 3-8B | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1166 | 1439 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1150 | 1401 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1152 | 1446 |

## FAQ

### Is Llama 3-8B better than Qwen3 Max?

Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 25.3 on the Noometry Index. Llama 3-8B costs 17× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Llama 3-8B or Qwen3 Max?

Llama 3-8B is cheaper. It lists at $0.14 per million input tokens and $0.14 per million output tokens; Qwen3 Max lists at $1.20 and $6.

### Is Llama 3-8B or Qwen3 Max better for coding?

Qwen3 Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 30.5 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3 Max does, with 262K tokens against 8K.

### How many benchmarks do Llama 3-8B and Qwen3 Max share?

23 benchmarks have published results for both models. Llama 3-8B has 34 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 Max has 33.