GPT-5.1 Vision vs Qwen3-Max Turbo: which model should you choose?
We compared GPT-5.1 Vision and Qwen3-Max Turbo on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. GPT-5.1 Vision has the stronger average benchmark score; Qwen3-Max Turbo 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 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-5.1 Vision | Qwen3-Max Turbo | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $17.76 | $17.70 | B |
| Output price / 1M | $80.59 | $63.95 | B |
| Context window | 400,000 | 1,000,000 | B |
| Max output | 16,384 | 128,000 | B |
| Average score | 84.8 | 84.7 | A |
| Arena Elo | 1462.4 | 1456.9 | A |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
GPT-5.1 Vision wins 8, Qwen3-Max Turbo wins 4, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | GPT-5.1 Vision | Qwen3-Max Turbo | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 85.5 | 86.8 | 1.3 | Qwen3-Max Turbo |
| GPQA Diamond | 78.7 | 78.3 | 0.4 | GPT-5.1 Vision |
| SWE-bench Verified | 73.6 | 75.9 | 2.3 | Qwen3-Max Turbo |
| HumanEval | 89.6 | 92.5 | 2.9 | Qwen3-Max Turbo |
| MATH-500 | 89.1 | 91.9 | 2.8 | Qwen3-Max Turbo |
| AIME 2025 | 82.4 | 81.2 | 1.2 | GPT-5.1 Vision |
| LiveCodeBench | 77.8 | 76.8 | 1.0 | GPT-5.1 Vision |
| IFEval | 92.7 | 92.1 | 0.6 | GPT-5.1 Vision |
| TruthfulQA | 86.9 | 86.3 | 0.6 | GPT-5.1 Vision |
| HellaSwag | 92.1 | 90.8 | 1.3 | GPT-5.1 Vision |
| MMMU | 83.9 | 78.8 | 5.1 | GPT-5.1 Vision |
| Arena Elo | 1462.4 | 1456.9 | 5.5 | 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 Turbo costs about $29.26. Qwen3-Max Turbo is roughly 13% cheaper than GPT-5.1 Vision. 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-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 8, Qwen3-Max Turbo wins 4, and 0 are tied. On the index average, GPT-5.1 Vision leads Qwen3-Max Turbo by 0.1 points (84.8 versus 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 GPT-5.1 Vision for quality-sensitive work and Qwen3-Max Turbo 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
- You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
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-5.1 Vision better than Qwen3-Max Turbo?
On the index average, GPT-5.1 Vision leads Qwen3-Max Turbo by 0.1 points (84.8 versus 84.7). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. GPT-5.1 Vision wins 8 benchmarks, Qwen3-Max Turbo wins 4.
Which is cheaper, GPT-5.1 Vision or Qwen3-Max Turbo?
Qwen3-Max Turbo is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $29.26 per million tokens, versus $33.47 for GPT-5.1 Vision.
Which has the larger context window?
Qwen3-Max Turbo has the larger context window at 1,000,000 tokens. GPT-5.1 Vision has 400,000 tokens.
Are these models open weights?
GPT-5.1 Vision is proprietary; Qwen3-Max Turbo is proprietary.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with GPT-5.1 Vision for quality-sensitive work and Qwen3-Max Turbo for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.