o3 Pro vs Qwen3-Max Max: which model should you choose?
We compared o3 Pro and Qwen3-Max Max on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Qwen3-Max Max has the stronger average benchmark score; Qwen3-Max Max is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
o3 Pro
o3 Pro is a frontier model from OpenAI. It offers a 400,000-token context window, costs $17.89 per million input tokens and $81.48 per million output tokens, and averages 85.8 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $17.89 / 1M
- Output
- $81.48 / 1M
- Context
- 400,000
- Avg score
- 85.8
- Open weights
- No
Qwen3-Max Max
Qwen3-Max Max is a frontier model from Alibaba Cloud. It offers a 400,000-token context window, costs $18.53 per million input tokens and $74.05 per million output tokens, and averages 85.9 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $18.53 / 1M
- Output
- $74.05 / 1M
- Context
- 400,000
- Avg score
- 85.9
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | o3 Pro | Qwen3-Max Max | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $17.89 | $18.53 | A |
| Output price / 1M | $81.48 | $74.05 | B |
| Context window | 400,000 | 400,000 | Tie |
| Max output | 8,192 | 65,536 | B |
| Average score | 85.8 | 85.9 | B |
| Arena Elo | 1471.9 | 1467.7 | A |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
o3 Pro wins 6, Qwen3-Max Max wins 6, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | o3 Pro | Qwen3-Max Max | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 84.3 | 85.2 | 0.9 | Qwen3-Max Max |
| GPQA Diamond | 78.7 | 83.8 | 5.1 | Qwen3-Max Max |
| SWE-bench Verified | 76.9 | 74.3 | 2.6 | o3 Pro |
| HumanEval | 90.6 | 90.2 | 0.4 | o3 Pro |
| MATH-500 | 92.4 | 92.8 | 0.4 | Qwen3-Max Max |
| AIME 2025 | 83.5 | 82.7 | 0.8 | o3 Pro |
| LiveCodeBench | 82.4 | 82.8 | 0.4 | Qwen3-Max Max |
| IFEval | 90.9 | 93.7 | 2.8 | Qwen3-Max Max |
| TruthfulQA | 88.4 | 89.3 | 0.9 | Qwen3-Max Max |
| HellaSwag | 92.5 | 91.4 | 1.1 | o3 Pro |
| MMMU | 83.1 | 78.9 | 4.2 | o3 Pro |
| Arena Elo | 1471.9 | 1467.7 | 4.2 | o3 Pro |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, o3 Pro costs about $33.79 per million tokens and Qwen3-Max Max costs about $32.41. Qwen3-Max Max is roughly 4% cheaper than o3 Pro. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
Both models list a 400,000-token context window. That is enough for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, o3 Pro wins 6, Qwen3-Max Max wins 6, and 0 are tied. On the index average, Qwen3-Max Max leads o3 Pro by 0.1 points (85.9 versus 85.8).
The price picture favours Qwen3-Max Max. 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-Max Max for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.
Choose o3 Pro if
- You prefer OpenAI's tooling or already use it.
Choose Qwen3-Max 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 65,536-token output limit.
FAQ
Is o3 Pro better than Qwen3-Max Max?
On the index average, Qwen3-Max Max leads o3 Pro by 0.1 points (85.9 versus 85.8). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. o3 Pro wins 6 benchmarks, Qwen3-Max Max wins 6.
Which is cheaper, o3 Pro or Qwen3-Max Max?
Qwen3-Max Max is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $32.41 per million tokens, versus $33.79 for o3 Pro.
Which has the larger context window?
Both models list a 400,000-token context window.
Are these models open weights?
o3 Pro is proprietary; Qwen3-Max Max is proprietary.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with Qwen3-Max Max for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.