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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

o4-mini vs Qwen3 Max

o4-mini comes out ahead, 59 to 50 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Our pick

    OpenAI

    o4-mini

    Released Apr 16, 2025Deprecated

    59/100
    • ECI145.6
    • Price$1.10 / $4.40
    • Context200K
    Full specs Remove o4-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

o4-mini is our pick

o4-mini is the better all-round choice, scoring 59/100 against Qwen3 Max (50). It leads on capability, price and inputs & features. Qwen3 Max wins on context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • Capabilityo4-miniCapabilities Index (ECI): o4-mini 145.6 · Qwen3 Max 142.4
  • Lowest priceo4-minio4-mini $1.93 · Qwen3 Max $2.40 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3 MaxQwen3 Max 262,144 · o4-mini 200,000 tokens
  • Widest inputso4-minio4-mini: Text, Images · Qwen3 Max: Text
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeighto4-miniQwen3 Max
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%7368
Price25%3632
Inputs & features15%7025
Context window10%3237
Overall100%59/10050/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

o4-mini vs Qwen3 Max specifications side by side
Specificationo4-miniOpenAIQwen3 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)145.6 (best)142.4
ECI rank#76 of 148 (best)#91 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions79.6% (best)72.6%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics36.1% (best)19.0%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics81.7% (best)73.3%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions19.6%48.8% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$1.10 (best)$1.20
Output$4.40 (best)$6.00
Cached input$0.275—
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
ImagesYesNo
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningYeslow · medium · highNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
API model IDo4-miniqwen3-max
API providers19 (best)16
ReleasedApr 16, 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.

  • o4-mini$19.80
  • Qwen3 Max$24.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: o4-mini or Qwen3 Max?

o4-mini is the better all-round choice, scoring 59/100 against Qwen3 Max (50). It leads on capability, price and inputs & features. Qwen3 Max wins on context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, o4-mini or Qwen3 Max?

o4-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 o4-mini versus $2.40 for Qwen3 Max (1.2× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

o4-mini scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): o4-mini 145.6 (#76 of 148) and Qwen3 Max 142.4 (#91 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (143.0–147.4 vs 140.0–144.6), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — o4-mini 79.6%, Qwen3 Max 72.6%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — o4-mini 36.1%, Qwen3 Max 19.0%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — o4-mini 81.7%, Qwen3 Max 73.3%; SimpleQA Verified — Qwen3 Max 48.8%, o4-mini 19.6%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for o4-mini and Qwen3 Max yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, o4-mini 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 o4-mini. Maximum output per response: o4-mini up to 100,000, Qwen3 Max up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

o4-mini accepts text and images; Qwen3 Max accepts text. o4-mini handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

No. o4-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. o4-mini came out Apr 16, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: o4-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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