Llama 4 Maverick Chat vs Qwen3: which model should you choose?
We compared Llama 4 Maverick Chat and Qwen3 on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Qwen3 has the stronger average benchmark score; Qwen3 is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
Llama 4 Maverick Chat
Llama 4 Maverick Chat is a multimodal model from Meta AI. It offers a 128,000-token context window, costs $5.09 per million input tokens and $23.20 per million output tokens, and averages 79.7 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $5.09 / 1M
- Output
- $23.20 / 1M
- Context
- 128,000
- Avg score
- 79.7
- Open weights
- Yes
Qwen3
Qwen3 is a multimodal model from Alibaba Cloud. It offers a 128,000-token context window, costs $5.04 per million input tokens and $22.52 per million output tokens, and averages 80.3 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $5.04 / 1M
- Output
- $22.52 / 1M
- Context
- 128,000
- Avg score
- 80.3
- Open weights
- Yes
Specification comparison
| Spec | Llama 4 Maverick Chat | Qwen3 | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $5.09 | $5.04 | B |
| Output price / 1M | $23.20 | $22.52 | B |
| Context window | 128,000 | 128,000 | Tie |
| Max output | 32,768 | 8,192 | A |
| Average score | 79.7 | 80.3 | B |
| Arena Elo | 1419.9 | 1420.9 | B |
| Open weights | Yes | Yes | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
Llama 4 Maverick Chat wins 5, Qwen3 wins 7, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | Llama 4 Maverick Chat | Qwen3 | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 80.5 | 81.2 | 0.7 | Qwen3 |
| GPQA Diamond | 73.0 | 77.7 | 4.7 | Qwen3 |
| SWE-bench Verified | 66.6 | 71.6 | 5.0 | Qwen3 |
| HumanEval | 83.2 | 87.0 | 3.8 | Qwen3 |
| MATH-500 | 84.8 | 86.5 | 1.7 | Qwen3 |
| AIME 2025 | 78.9 | 74.5 | 4.4 | Llama 4 Maverick Chat |
| LiveCodeBench | 76.3 | 73.8 | 2.5 | Llama 4 Maverick Chat |
| IFEval | 87.4 | 85.6 | 1.8 | Llama 4 Maverick Chat |
| TruthfulQA | 81.5 | 80.4 | 1.1 | Llama 4 Maverick Chat |
| HellaSwag | 88.8 | 88.1 | 0.7 | Llama 4 Maverick Chat |
| MMMU | 75.4 | 76.7 | 1.3 | Qwen3 |
| Arena Elo | 1419.9 | 1420.9 | 1.0 | Qwen3 |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, Llama 4 Maverick Chat costs about $9.62 per million tokens and Qwen3 costs about $9.41. Qwen3 is roughly 2% cheaper than Llama 4 Maverick Chat. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
Both models list a 128,000-token context window. That is enough for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, Llama 4 Maverick Chat wins 5, Qwen3 wins 7, and 0 are tied. On the index average, Qwen3 leads Llama 4 Maverick Chat by 0.6 points (80.3 versus 79.7).
The price picture favours Qwen3. The context picture is effectively a tie. 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 for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.
Choose Llama 4 Maverick Chat if
- You need the larger 32,768-token output limit.
Choose Qwen3 if
- You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
FAQ
Is Llama 4 Maverick Chat better than Qwen3?
On the index average, Qwen3 leads Llama 4 Maverick Chat by 0.6 points (80.3 versus 79.7). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. Llama 4 Maverick Chat wins 5 benchmarks, Qwen3 wins 7.
Which is cheaper, Llama 4 Maverick Chat or Qwen3?
Qwen3 is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $9.41 per million tokens, versus $9.62 for Llama 4 Maverick Chat.
Which has the larger context window?
Both models list a 128,000-token context window.
Are these models open weights?
Llama 4 Maverick Chat is open weights; Qwen3 is open weights.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with Qwen3 for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.