Grok 3 Max vs Qwen3-Max Turbo: which model should you choose?
We compared Grok 3 Max and Qwen3-Max Turbo on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Grok 3 Max has the stronger average benchmark score; Qwen3-Max Turbo is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
Grok 3 Max
Grok 3 Max is a frontier model from xAI. It offers a 2,000,000-token context window, costs $17.66 per million input tokens and $89.12 per million output tokens, and averages 85.9 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $17.66 / 1M
- Output
- $89.12 / 1M
- Context
- 2,000,000
- Avg score
- 85.9
- 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 | Grok 3 Max | Qwen3-Max Turbo | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $17.66 | $17.70 | A |
| Output price / 1M | $89.12 | $63.95 | B |
| Context window | 2,000,000 | 1,000,000 | A |
| Max output | 32,768 | 128,000 | B |
| Average score | 85.9 | 84.7 | A |
| Arena Elo | 1475.8 | 1456.9 | A |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
Grok 3 Max wins 9, Qwen3-Max Turbo wins 2, and 1 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | Grok 3 Max | Qwen3-Max Turbo | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 87.3 | 86.8 | 0.5 | Grok 3 Max |
| GPQA Diamond | 80.9 | 78.3 | 2.6 | Grok 3 Max |
| SWE-bench Verified | 73.6 | 75.9 | 2.3 | Qwen3-Max Turbo |
| HumanEval | 91.9 | 92.5 | 0.6 | Qwen3-Max Turbo |
| MATH-500 | 91.9 | 91.9 | 0.0 | Tie |
| AIME 2025 | 86.6 | 81.2 | 5.4 | Grok 3 Max |
| LiveCodeBench | 79.7 | 76.8 | 2.9 | Grok 3 Max |
| IFEval | 92.6 | 92.1 | 0.5 | Grok 3 Max |
| TruthfulQA | 86.7 | 86.3 | 0.4 | Grok 3 Max |
| HellaSwag | 91.8 | 90.8 | 1.0 | Grok 3 Max |
| MMMU | 82.3 | 78.8 | 3.5 | Grok 3 Max |
| Arena Elo | 1475.8 | 1456.9 | 18.9 | Grok 3 Max |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, Grok 3 Max costs about $35.53 per million tokens and Qwen3-Max Turbo costs about $29.26. Qwen3-Max Turbo is roughly 18% cheaper than Grok 3 Max. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
Grok 3 Max has the larger context window at 2,000,000 tokens, compared with 1,000,000 for Qwen3-Max Turbo. That matters for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, Grok 3 Max wins 9, Qwen3-Max Turbo wins 2, and 1 are tied. On the index average, Grok 3 Max leads Qwen3-Max Turbo by 1.2 points (85.9 versus 84.7).
The price picture favours Qwen3-Max Turbo. The context picture favours Grok 3 Max. 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 Grok 3 Max 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 Grok 3 Max if
- You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
- You need the larger 2,000,000-token context window.
Choose Qwen3-Max Turbo if
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
- You need the larger 128,000-token output limit.
FAQ
Is Grok 3 Max better than Qwen3-Max Turbo?
On the index average, Grok 3 Max leads Qwen3-Max Turbo by 1.2 points (85.9 versus 84.7). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. Grok 3 Max wins 9 benchmarks, Qwen3-Max Turbo wins 2.
Which is cheaper, Grok 3 Max or Qwen3-Max Turbo?
Qwen3-Max Turbo is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $29.26 per million tokens, versus $35.53 for Grok 3 Max.
Which has the larger context window?
Grok 3 Max has the larger context window at 2,000,000 tokens. Qwen3-Max Turbo has 1,000,000 tokens.
Are these models open weights?
Grok 3 Max is proprietary; Qwen3-Max Turbo is proprietary.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with Grok 3 Max 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.