GPT-4.1 Max vs Qwen3-Max Turbo: which model should you choose?
We compared GPT-4.1 Max and Qwen3-Max Turbo on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. GPT-4.1 Max and Qwen3-Max Turbo are effectively tied on the index average; Qwen3-Max Turbo is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
GPT-4.1 Max
GPT-4.1 Max is a frontier model from OpenAI. It offers a 400,000-token context window, costs $17.34 per million input tokens and $66.38 per million output tokens, and averages 84.7 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $17.34 / 1M
- Output
- $66.38 / 1M
- Context
- 400,000
- Avg score
- 84.7
- Open weights
- No
Qwen3-Max Turbo
Qwen3-Max Turbo is a frontier model from Alibaba Cloud. It offers a 1,000,000-token context window, costs $17.70 per million input tokens and $63.95 per million output tokens, and averages 84.7 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $17.70 / 1M
- Output
- $63.95 / 1M
- Context
- 1,000,000
- Avg score
- 84.7
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | GPT-4.1 Max | Qwen3-Max Turbo | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $17.34 | $17.70 | A |
| Output price / 1M | $66.38 | $63.95 | B |
| Context window | 400,000 | 1,000,000 | B |
| Max output | 8,192 | 128,000 | B |
| Average score | 84.7 | 84.7 | Tie |
| Arena Elo | 1467.6 | 1456.9 | A |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
GPT-4.1 Max wins 6, Qwen3-Max Turbo wins 5, and 1 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 Max | Qwen3-Max Turbo | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 87.4 | 86.8 | 0.6 | GPT-4.1 Max |
| GPQA Diamond | 81.2 | 78.3 | 2.9 | GPT-4.1 Max |
| SWE-bench Verified | 74.8 | 75.9 | 1.1 | Qwen3-Max Turbo |
| HumanEval | 88.8 | 92.5 | 3.7 | Qwen3-Max Turbo |
| MATH-500 | 87.3 | 91.9 | 4.6 | Qwen3-Max Turbo |
| AIME 2025 | 84.9 | 81.2 | 3.7 | GPT-4.1 Max |
| LiveCodeBench | 78.5 | 76.8 | 1.7 | GPT-4.1 Max |
| IFEval | 92.1 | 92.1 | 0.0 | Tie |
| TruthfulQA | 85.4 | 86.3 | 0.9 | Qwen3-Max Turbo |
| HellaSwag | 90.7 | 90.8 | 0.1 | Qwen3-Max Turbo |
| MMMU | 80.5 | 78.8 | 1.7 | GPT-4.1 Max |
| Arena Elo | 1467.6 | 1456.9 | 10.7 | GPT-4.1 Max |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, GPT-4.1 Max costs about $29.60 per million tokens and Qwen3-Max Turbo costs about $29.26. Qwen3-Max Turbo is roughly 1% cheaper than GPT-4.1 Max. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
Qwen3-Max Turbo has the larger context window at 1,000,000 tokens, compared with 400,000 for GPT-4.1 Max. That matters for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, GPT-4.1 Max wins 6, Qwen3-Max Turbo wins 5, and 1 are tied. The two models are effectively tied on the index average at 84.7.
The price picture favours Qwen3-Max Turbo. The context picture favours Qwen3-Max Turbo. Those two dimensions often matter more than a few benchmark points once a model is good enough for the task.
If you need a single default, start with Qwen3-Max Turbo; it is cheaper on a blended basis and has the larger context window. Test it on your own traffic before committing.
Choose GPT-4.1 Max if
- You prefer OpenAI's tooling or already use it.
Choose Qwen3-Max Turbo if
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
- You need the larger 1,000,000-token context window.
- You need the larger 128,000-token output limit.
FAQ
Is GPT-4.1 Max better than Qwen3-Max Turbo?
The two models are effectively tied on the index average at 84.7. The better choice depends on price, context and your task. GPT-4.1 Max wins 6 benchmarks, Qwen3-Max Turbo wins 5.
Which is cheaper, GPT-4.1 Max or Qwen3-Max Turbo?
Qwen3-Max Turbo is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $29.26 per million tokens, versus $29.60 for GPT-4.1 Max.
Which has the larger context window?
Qwen3-Max Turbo has the larger context window at 1,000,000 tokens. GPT-4.1 Max has 400,000 tokens.
Are these models open weights?
GPT-4.1 Max is proprietary; Qwen3-Max Turbo is proprietary.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with Qwen3-Max Turbo; it is cheaper on a blended basis and has the larger context window. Test it on your own traffic before committing.