GPT-5.1 Vision vs Qwen3-Max Reasoning: which model should you choose?
We compared GPT-5.1 Vision and Qwen3-Max Reasoning on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Qwen3-Max Reasoning has the stronger average benchmark score; GPT-5.1 Vision is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
GPT-5.1 Vision
GPT-5.1 Vision is a frontier model from OpenAI. It offers a 400,000-token context window, costs $17.76 per million input tokens and $80.59 per million output tokens, and averages 84.8 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $17.76 / 1M
- Output
- $80.59 / 1M
- Context
- 400,000
- Avg score
- 84.8
- Open weights
- No
Qwen3-Max Reasoning
Qwen3-Max Reasoning is a frontier model from Alibaba Cloud. It offers a 2,000,000-token context window, costs $18.12 per million input tokens and $81.94 per million output tokens, and averages 85.9 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $18.12 / 1M
- Output
- $81.94 / 1M
- Context
- 2,000,000
- Avg score
- 85.9
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | GPT-5.1 Vision | Qwen3-Max Reasoning | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $17.76 | $18.12 | A |
| Output price / 1M | $80.59 | $81.94 | A |
| Context window | 400,000 | 2,000,000 | B |
| Max output | 16,384 | 8,192 | A |
| Average score | 84.8 | 85.9 | B |
| Arena Elo | 1462.4 | 1461.0 | A |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
GPT-5.1 Vision wins 4, Qwen3-Max Reasoning wins 8, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | GPT-5.1 Vision | Qwen3-Max Reasoning | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 85.5 | 88.1 | 2.6 | Qwen3-Max Reasoning |
| GPQA Diamond | 78.7 | 79.8 | 1.1 | Qwen3-Max Reasoning |
| SWE-bench Verified | 73.6 | 75.3 | 1.7 | Qwen3-Max Reasoning |
| HumanEval | 89.6 | 92.6 | 3.0 | Qwen3-Max Reasoning |
| MATH-500 | 89.1 | 93.0 | 3.9 | Qwen3-Max Reasoning |
| AIME 2025 | 82.4 | 83.1 | 0.7 | Qwen3-Max Reasoning |
| LiveCodeBench | 77.8 | 78.0 | 0.2 | Qwen3-Max Reasoning |
| IFEval | 92.7 | 92.2 | 0.5 | GPT-5.1 Vision |
| TruthfulQA | 86.9 | 88.8 | 1.9 | Qwen3-Max Reasoning |
| HellaSwag | 92.1 | 91.5 | 0.6 | GPT-5.1 Vision |
| MMMU | 83.9 | 82.3 | 1.6 | GPT-5.1 Vision |
| Arena Elo | 1462.4 | 1461.0 | 1.4 | GPT-5.1 Vision |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, GPT-5.1 Vision costs about $33.47 per million tokens and Qwen3-Max Reasoning costs about $34.08. GPT-5.1 Vision is roughly 2% cheaper than Qwen3-Max Reasoning. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
Qwen3-Max Reasoning has the larger context window at 2,000,000 tokens, compared with 400,000 for GPT-5.1 Vision. That matters for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, GPT-5.1 Vision wins 4, Qwen3-Max Reasoning wins 8, and 0 are tied. On the index average, Qwen3-Max Reasoning leads GPT-5.1 Vision by 1.1 points (85.9 versus 84.8).
The price picture favours GPT-5.1 Vision. The context picture favours Qwen3-Max Reasoning. 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 Reasoning for quality-sensitive work and GPT-5.1 Vision for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.
Choose GPT-5.1 Vision if
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
- You need the larger 16,384-token output limit.
Choose Qwen3-Max Reasoning if
- You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
- You need the larger 2,000,000-token context window.
FAQ
Is GPT-5.1 Vision better than Qwen3-Max Reasoning?
On the index average, Qwen3-Max Reasoning leads GPT-5.1 Vision by 1.1 points (85.9 versus 84.8). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. GPT-5.1 Vision wins 4 benchmarks, Qwen3-Max Reasoning wins 8.
Which is cheaper, GPT-5.1 Vision or Qwen3-Max Reasoning?
GPT-5.1 Vision is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $33.47 per million tokens, versus $34.08 for Qwen3-Max Reasoning.
Which has the larger context window?
Qwen3-Max Reasoning has the larger context window at 2,000,000 tokens. GPT-5.1 Vision has 400,000 tokens.
Are these models open weights?
GPT-5.1 Vision is proprietary; Qwen3-Max Reasoning is proprietary.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with Qwen3-Max Reasoning for quality-sensitive work and GPT-5.1 Vision for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.