o4-mini vs Qwen 3 Max
Pricing, context window, and benchmark comparison · Last updated April 2026
Qwen 3 Max is cheaper than o4-mini at $0.60/1M/1M vs $1.10/1M/1M input tokens — a 1.8x cost difference. o4-mini scores higher on quality benchmarks (ELO 1350). Choose Qwen 3 Max for cost-sensitive workloads; choose o4-mini for maximum quality.
Which is cheaper: o4-mini or Qwen 3 Max?
Qwen 3 Max is the cheaper option at $0.60/1M per 1M input tokens, compared to $1.10/1M for o4-mini. That is a 1.8x cost difference on input tokens. Output pricing follows a similar pattern: o4-mini charges $4.40/1M/1M vs $1.80/1M/1M for Qwen 3 Max.
Which has better quality: o4-mini or Qwen 3 Max?
Based on LMSYS Chatbot Arena rankings, o4-mini achieves a higher ELO score (1350 vs 1345), suggesting stronger performance on open-ended tasks. o4-mini excels at cheapest reasoning model in the openai lineup. Qwen 3 Max is known for best-in-class for chinese, japanese, korean.
Which should you choose: o4-mini or Qwen 3 Max?
- → Cheapest reasoning model in the OpenAI lineup
- → Strong performance on code and math for the price
- → 200K context window
- → Best-in-class for Chinese, Japanese, Korean
- → Open weights available
- → Competitive with Llama 4 Maverick on many benchmarks
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is cheaper: o4-mini or Qwen 3 Max?
Qwen 3 Max is cheaper at $0.60/1M per 1M input tokens, making it 1.8x more affordable.
Which has better quality: o4-mini or Qwen 3 Max?
o4-mini scores higher on the LMSYS Chatbot Arena with an ELO of 1350, suggesting better overall quality for most tasks.
Which has a larger context window: o4-mini or Qwen 3 Max?
Qwen 3 Max has a larger context window at 262K tokens.
Should I choose o4-mini or Qwen 3 Max?
Choose Qwen 3 Max if cost is the priority. Choose o4-mini if benchmark quality is most important. Consider your specific use case: o4-mini is best for reasoning and coding, while Qwen 3 Max excels at translation and coding.
Is o4-mini or Qwen 3 Max open source?
o4-mini is proprietary. Qwen 3 Max is open source.