Grok 3 Max vs Qwen3-Max: which model should you choose?
We compared Grok 3 Max and Qwen3-Max on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Grok 3 Max has the stronger average benchmark score; Grok 3 Max 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
Qwen3-Max is a frontier model from Alibaba Cloud. It offers a 400,000-token context window, costs $17.37 per million input tokens and $94.30 per million output tokens, and averages 84.4 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $17.37 / 1M
- Output
- $94.30 / 1M
- Context
- 400,000
- Avg score
- 84.4
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | Grok 3 Max | Qwen3-Max | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $17.66 | $17.37 | B |
| Output price / 1M | $89.12 | $94.30 | A |
| Context window | 2,000,000 | 400,000 | A |
| Max output | 32,768 | 4,096 | A |
| Average score | 85.9 | 84.4 | A |
| Arena Elo | 1475.8 | 1449.2 | A |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
Grok 3 Max wins 9, Qwen3-Max wins 3, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | Grok 3 Max | Qwen3-Max | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 87.3 | 84.0 | 3.3 | Grok 3 Max |
| GPQA Diamond | 80.9 | 82.3 | 1.4 | Qwen3-Max |
| SWE-bench Verified | 73.6 | 73.3 | 0.3 | Grok 3 Max |
| HumanEval | 91.9 | 88.5 | 3.4 | Grok 3 Max |
| MATH-500 | 91.9 | 89.7 | 2.2 | Grok 3 Max |
| AIME 2025 | 86.6 | 81.1 | 5.5 | Grok 3 Max |
| LiveCodeBench | 79.7 | 82.2 | 2.5 | Qwen3-Max |
| IFEval | 92.6 | 92.5 | 0.1 | Grok 3 Max |
| TruthfulQA | 86.7 | 83.4 | 3.3 | Grok 3 Max |
| HellaSwag | 91.8 | 92.9 | 1.1 | Qwen3-Max |
| MMMU | 82.3 | 78.7 | 3.6 | Grok 3 Max |
| Arena Elo | 1475.8 | 1449.2 | 26.6 | 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 costs about $36.60. Grok 3 Max is roughly 3% cheaper than Qwen3-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 400,000 for Qwen3-Max. That matters for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, Grok 3 Max wins 9, Qwen3-Max wins 3, and 0 are tied. On the index average, Grok 3 Max leads Qwen3-Max by 1.5 points (85.9 versus 84.4).
The price picture favours Grok 3 Max. 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 check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.
Choose Grok 3 Max if
- You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
- You need the larger 2,000,000-token context window.
- You need the larger 32,768-token output limit.
Choose Qwen3-Max if
- You prefer Alibaba Cloud's tooling or already use it.
FAQ
Is Grok 3 Max better than Qwen3-Max?
On the index average, Grok 3 Max leads Qwen3-Max by 1.5 points (85.9 versus 84.4). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. Grok 3 Max wins 9 benchmarks, Qwen3-Max wins 3.
Which is cheaper, Grok 3 Max or Qwen3-Max?
Grok 3 Max is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $35.53 per million tokens, versus $36.60 for Qwen3-Max.
Which has the larger context window?
Grok 3 Max has the larger context window at 2,000,000 tokens. Qwen3-Max has 400,000 tokens.
Are these models open weights?
Grok 3 Max is proprietary; Qwen3-Max is proprietary.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with Grok 3 Max for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.