ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

o1 vs Qwen3 Max

Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen3 Max 50, o1 49). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. OpenAI

    o1

    Released Dec 5, 2024Deprecated

    49/100
    • ECI141.9
    • Price$15.00 / $60.00
    • Context200K
    Full specs Remove o1

  2. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 Max

    Released Sep 23, 2025

    50/100
    • ECI142.4
    • Price$1.20 / $6.00
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 Max

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Qwen3 Max 50/100, o1 49/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3 Max for raw capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3 MaxCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 Max 142.4 · o1 141.9
  • Lowest priceQwen3 MaxQwen3 Max $2.40 · o1 $26.25 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3 MaxQwen3 Max 262,144 · o1 200,000 tokens
  • Widest inputso1o1: Text, Images, PDFs · Qwen3 Max: Text
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeighto1Qwen3 Max
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%6868
Price25%032
Inputs & features15%8025
Context window10%3237
Overall100%49/10050/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

o1 vs Qwen3 Max specifications side by side
Specificationo1OpenAIQwen3 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)141.9142.4 (best)
ECI rank#92 of 148#91 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions76.8% (best)72.6%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics14.7%19.0% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics73.3%73.3%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions41.1%48.8% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$15.00$1.20 (best)
Output$60.00$6.00 (best)
Cached input$7.50—
Blended (3:1)$26.25$2.40 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial OpenAI APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window200,000 tokens262,144 tokens (best)
Max output100,000 tokens (best)65,536 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesNo
PDFsYesNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningYeslow · medium · highNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
API model IDo1qwen3-max
API providers916 (best)
ReleasedDec 5, 2024Sep 23, 2025
Knowledge cutoffSep 2023Apr 2025
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • o1$270.00
  • Qwen3 Max$24.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: o1 or Qwen3 Max?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Qwen3 Max 50/100, o1 49/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3 Max for raw capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, o1 or Qwen3 Max?

Qwen3 Max is cheaper at $1.20 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). o1 costs $15.00 input / $60.00 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $2.40 per million tokens for Qwen3 Max versus $26.25 for o1 (11× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3 Max scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 Max 142.4 (#91 of 148) and o1 141.9 (#92 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (140.0–144.6 vs 139.7–143.1), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — o1 76.8%, Qwen3 Max 72.6%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Qwen3 Max 19.0%, o1 14.7%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — o1 73.3%, Qwen3 Max 73.3%; SimpleQA Verified — Qwen3 Max 48.8%, o1 41.1%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for o1 and Qwen3 Max yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3 Max leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3 Max has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 200,000 for o1. Maximum output per response: o1 up to 100,000, Qwen3 Max up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

o1 accepts text, images and PDFs; Qwen3 Max accepts text. o1 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

No. o1 and Qwen3 Max are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.

Which is newer?

Qwen3 Max is the newest, released Sep 23, 2025. o1 came out Dec 5, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: o1 Sep 2023, Qwen3 Max Apr 2025.

How do you decide the winner?

Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

Related comparisons