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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3 Max vs Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct comes out ahead, 62 to 50 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 Max

    Released Sep 23, 2025

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

    Meta

    Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct

    Released Apr 5, 2025

    62/100
    • ECI129.7
    • Price$0.225 / $0.69
    • Context10M
    Full specs Remove Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct

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01 — Verdict

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is our pick

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 62/100 against Qwen3 Max (50). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. Qwen3 Max wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3 MaxCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 Max 142.4 · Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 129.7
  • Lowest priceLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct $0.341 · Qwen3 Max $2.40 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 10,000,000 · Qwen3 Max 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructQwen3 Max: Text · Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3 MaxLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%6852
Price25%3272
Inputs & features15%2550
Context window10%37100
Overall100%50/10062/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3 Max vs Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)Llama 4 Scout 17B InstructMeta
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)142.4 (best)129.7
ECI rank#91 of 148 (best)#126 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions72.6% (best)51.8%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics19.0%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics73.3% (best)7.8%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions48.8%—
Price per million tokens
Input$1.20$0.225 (best)
Output$6.00$0.69 (best)
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$2.40$0.341 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIMedian of 4 providers
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens10,000,000 tokens (best)
Max output65,536 tokens (best)16,384 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpen
API model IDqwen3-max—
API providers16 (best)4
ReleasedSep 23, 2025Apr 5, 2025
Knowledge cutoffApr 2025Aug 2024
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.

  • Qwen3 Max$24.00
  • Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct$3.63
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3 Max or Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct?

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 62/100 against Qwen3 Max (50). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. Qwen3 Max wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3 Max or Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct?

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is cheaper at $0.225 input / $0.69 output per million tokens (median across 4 API providers). 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 $0.341 per million tokens for Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct versus $2.40 for Qwen3 Max (7× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3 Max scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 Max 142.4 (#91 of 148) and Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 129.7 (#126 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (140.0–144.6 vs 124.8–131.4), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3 Max 72.6%, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 51.8%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3 Max 73.3%, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 7.8%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 Max and Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 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?

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct has the largest context window at 10,000,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3 Max. Maximum output per response: Qwen3 Max up to 65,536, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct up to 16,384 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3 Max accepts text; Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct accepts text and images. Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Qwen3 Max is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3 Max is the newest, released Sep 23, 2025. Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct came out Apr 5, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3 Max Apr 2025, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct Aug 2024.

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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