# Molmo 2 8b vs Qwen3 Max

> Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.7 to 39.1 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/molmo-2-8b-vs-qwen3-max
- Last updated: 2026-10-11
- Shared benchmarks: 4

## Summary

- They share 4 benchmarks with published results for both. Molmo 2 8b scores higher in 1 category and Qwen3 Max in 3 categories; 4 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Qwen3 Max leads 62.4 to 49.4.
- Molmo 2 8b has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Molmo 2 8b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Allen Institute for AI (Ai2) | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 39.1 | 43.7 |
| Rank | 174 | 87 |
| Context | — | 262K |
| Input $/M | — | $1.20 |
| Output $/M | — | $6 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Molmo 2 8b: —
- Qwen3 Max: 43.0 (#93)

| Benchmark | Molmo 2 8b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | — | 1456 |
| ALE-Bench | — | 370.45 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Molmo 2 8b: —
- Qwen3 Max: —

| Benchmark | Molmo 2 8b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 71.56 |

## Reasoning

- Molmo 2 8b: 25.6 (#146)
- Qwen3 Max: 22.6 (#190)

| Benchmark | Molmo 2 8b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1287 | 1448 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 72.5% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 30.1% |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 4% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 5% |
| DTBench | — | 82.1% |
| LMCA | — | 28.3% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 142.38 |

## Math

- Molmo 2 8b: —
- Qwen3 Max: 38.7 (#131)

| Benchmark | Molmo 2 8b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 18.9% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | — | 73.3% |
| LMArena Math | — | 1446 |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 97.1% |

## Knowledge

- Molmo 2 8b: —
- Qwen3 Max: 48.1 (#78)

| Benchmark | Molmo 2 8b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | — | 72.6% |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 48.7% |
| LMArena Expert | — | 1455 |

## Multimodal

- Molmo 2 8b: 30.2 (#112)
- Qwen3 Max: —

| Benchmark | Molmo 2 8b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1081 | — |

## Multilingual

- Molmo 2 8b: 42.7 (#190)
- Qwen3 Max: 53.7 (#62)

| Benchmark | Molmo 2 8b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1276 | 1429 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1478 |
| LMArena French | — | 1449 |
| LMArena German | — | 1463 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1397 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1399 |
| LMArena Russian | — | 1428 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1462 |

## Instruction Following

- Molmo 2 8b: 67.0 (#201)
- Qwen3 Max: 74.8 (#87)

| Benchmark | Molmo 2 8b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1270 | 1419 |

## Long Context

- Molmo 2 8b: —
- Qwen3 Max: 41.6 (#134)

| Benchmark | Molmo 2 8b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Fiction.LiveBench | — | 66.7% |
| CL-bench | — | 14.5% |
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1438 |

## Writing & Preference

- Molmo 2 8b: 49.4 (#191)
- Qwen3 Max: 62.4 (#76)

| Benchmark | Molmo 2 8b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1288 | 1439 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | — | 1402 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | — | 1446 |

## FAQ

### Is Molmo 2 8b better than Qwen3 Max?

Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.7 to 39.1 on the Noometry Index.

### How many benchmarks do Molmo 2 8b and Qwen3 Max share?

4 benchmarks have published results for both models. Molmo 2 8b has 5 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 Max has 33.