# Qwen Max vs Sonar

> Sonar is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.5 to 34.7 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/qwen-max-vs-sonar
- Last updated: 2026-10-11
- Shared benchmarks: 0

## Summary

- The widest gap is in math, where Sonar leads 33.7 to 22.3.
- Sonar is cheaper at $1 / $1 per million input/output tokens, against $1.60 / $6.40 for Qwen Max.
- Sonar accepts more context: 128K tokens versus 33K.

## Snapshot

| | Qwen Max | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | Perplexity |
| Noometry Index | 34.7 | 38.5 |
| Rank | 230 | 187 |
| Context | 33K | 128K |
| Input $/M | $1.60 | $1 |
| Output $/M | $6.40 | $1 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Qwen Max: 30.7 (#292)
- Sonar: 35.7 (#221)

| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| Aider Polyglot | 21.8% | — |
| LiveBench Coding | — | 35.1% |
| LMArena Coding | 1288 | — |

## Reasoning

- Qwen Max: 25.1 (#151)
- Sonar: 21.1 (#227)

| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Reasoning | — | 46.3% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1269 | — |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | — | 37.9% |
| LiveBench | — | 46.9% |

## Math

- Qwen Max: 22.3 (#276)
- Sonar: 33.7 (#200)

| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 16.1% | — |
| LiveBench Math | — | 41.6% |
| LMArena Math | 1275 | — |
| MATH Level 5 | 67.2% | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 1% | — |

## Knowledge

- Qwen Max: 30.3 (#228)
- Sonar: —

| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 56.1% | — |
| LMArena Expert | 1248 | — |

## Multilingual

- Qwen Max: 41.8 (#202)
- Sonar: —

| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1263 | — |
| LMArena Chinese | 1254 | — |
| LMArena French | 1330 | — |
| LMArena German | 1254 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1205 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1142 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1274 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1290 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Qwen Max: 66.5 (#208)
- Sonar: 71.4 (#150)

| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Instruction Following | — | 76.2% |
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1262 | — |

## Long Context

- Qwen Max: 39.4 (#180)
- Sonar: —

| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| Fiction.LiveBench | 66.7% | — |
| LMArena Longer Query | 1288 | — |

## Writing & Preference

- Qwen Max: 47.8 (#205)
- Sonar: 52.6 (#167)

| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1282 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1248 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1277 | — |
| LiveBench Language | — | 44.1% |

## FAQ

### Is Qwen Max better than Sonar?

Sonar is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.5 to 34.7 on the Noometry Index.

### Which is cheaper, Qwen Max or Sonar?

Sonar is cheaper. It lists at $1 per million input tokens and $1 per million output tokens; Qwen Max lists at $1.60 and $6.40.

### Is Qwen Max or Sonar better for coding?

Sonar scores higher on coding benchmarks: 35.7 versus 30.7 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Sonar does, with 128K tokens against 33K.

### How many benchmarks do Qwen Max and Sonar share?

0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen Max has 23 scored results on Noometry and Sonar has 7.