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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

o3-mini vs Qwen3 Max

Too close to call on our weighted score (o3-mini 52, Qwen3 Max 50). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. OpenAI

    o3-mini

    Released Jan 31, 2025Deprecated

    52/100
    • ECI140.3
    • Price$1.10 / $4.40
    • Context200K
    Full specs Remove o3-mini

  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 2 points (o3-mini 52/100, Qwen3 Max 50/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3 Max for raw capability and o3-mini on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3 MaxCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 Max 142.4 · o3-mini 140.3
  • Lowest priceo3-minio3-mini $1.93 · Qwen3 Max $2.40 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3 MaxQwen3 Max 262,144 · o3-mini 200,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputso3-mini: Text · Qwen3 Max: Text
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeighto3-miniQwen3 Max
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%6668
Price25%3632
Inputs & features15%4525
Context window10%3237
Overall100%52/10050/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

o3-mini vs Qwen3 Max specifications side by side
Specificationo3-miniOpenAIQwen3 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)140.3142.4 (best)
ECI rank#98 of 148#91 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions77.0% (best)72.6%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics18.6%19.0% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics76.9% (best)73.3%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions15.3%48.8% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$1.10 (best)$1.20
Output$4.40 (best)$6.00
Cached input$0.55—
Blended (3:1)$1.93 (best)$2.40
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
ImagesNoNo
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningYeslow · medium · highNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
API model IDo3-miniqwen3-max
API providers1516 (best)
ReleasedJan 31, 2025Sep 23, 2025
Knowledge cutoffMay 2024Apr 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.

  • o3-mini$19.80
  • Qwen3 Max$24.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: o3-mini or Qwen3 Max?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (o3-mini 52/100, Qwen3 Max 50/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3 Max for raw capability and o3-mini on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, o3-mini or Qwen3 Max?

o3-mini is cheaper at $1.10 input / $4.40 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). Qwen3 Max costs $1.20 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $1.93 per million tokens for o3-mini versus $2.40 for Qwen3 Max (1.2× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3 Max scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 Max 142.4 (#91 of 148) and o3-mini 140.3 (#98 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (140.0–144.6 vs 137.4–141.9), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — o3-mini 77.0%, Qwen3 Max 72.6%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Qwen3 Max 19.0%, o3-mini 18.6%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — o3-mini 76.9%, Qwen3 Max 73.3%; SimpleQA Verified — Qwen3 Max 48.8%, o3-mini 15.3%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for o3-mini 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 o3-mini. Maximum output per response: o3-mini up to 100,000, Qwen3 Max up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

o3-mini accepts text; Qwen3 Max accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

No. o3-mini and Qwen3 Max are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.

Which is newer?

Qwen3 Max is the newest, released Sep 23, 2025. o3-mini came out Jan 31, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: o3-mini May 2024, 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

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