Compare / Qwen3-Max vs Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview (09-2025)
Qwen3-Max vs Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview (09-2025)
Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 16 results on 3 sources that measured both models.
Of the 16 results both models have, the better value on each. Results whose reported ranges overlap are too close to call.
Results as of 13 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-13-2e2420e3c5cc). See also Alibaba vs Google, every model from both labs.
Qwen3-Max or Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview (09-2025)? The short answer
They score and cost about the same: pick on the results below that match your work.
- They score about the same on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (15.6 and 15.5).
- Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview (09-2025) is newer: released 25 Sep 2025, against 24 Sep 2025 for Qwen3-Max.
- On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview (09-2025) does better for reasoning and knowledge.
Head to head
Every fact side by side
| Qwen3-Max | Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview (09-2025) | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per million tokens | $0.78 in · $3.90 out | Not on sale |
| Blended (3 in : 1 out) | $1.56 | – |
| Cheapest host, blended | – | – |
| Intelligence Index | 15.6 | 15.5 |
| Spring Prompt overall | – | – |
| Output speed, tokens a second | – | – |
| Context window | 262,144 tokens | – |
| Released | 24 Sep 2025 | 25 Sep 2025 (newer) |
| Weights | Closed | Closed |
| Developer based in | China | the US |
Prices are the developer's list price where we have read it, otherwise the typical host on OpenRouter; see every model's price. Intelligence and speed from Artificial Analysis.
Which is better for what
Each model's rank among the models on sale today, for each kind of work, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. Further right is better; the better rank is in green.
Every shared result
Each model's best result on every measure both have, grouped by benchmark, with the setting that produced it. Under each measure, every model that benchmark has measured is a grey tick, best to the right, so you can see where the two sit in the field. The headline measures of each benchmark come first; the rest are under "Show all". Green marks the better value; where a source reports ranges that overlap, neither is marked.
| Measure | Qwen3-Max | Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview (09-2025) |
|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results | ||
| Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 108 · 133 of 387 measured | 1,423 | 1,403 |
| Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 110 · 135 of 380 measured | 1,419 | 1,403 |
| Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 105 · 120 of 385 measured | 1,393 | 1,381 |
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results | ||
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 123 · 125 of 243 measured | 15.6 | 15.5thinking reasoning |
| GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 132 · 111 of 231 measured | 76.4% | 79.3%thinking reasoning |
| Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 140 · 131 of 242 measured | 11.9% | 13.8%thinking reasoning |
| UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results | ||
| Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 115 · 89 of 230 measured | 38.6 | 44.9no reasoning |
| Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better 134 · 111 of 230 measured | 23.0% | 20.0%no reasoning |
| Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better 155 · 117 of 230 measured | 0.33 | 0.35thinking reasoning |
Show all 16 results (7 more)
| Measure | Qwen3-Max | Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview (09-2025) |
|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results | ||
| Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 137 · 123 of 338 measured | 1,417 | 1,432 |
| Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 106 · 124 of 387 measured | 1,413 | 1,400 |
| Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 101 · 116 of 386 measured | 1,405 | 1,394 |
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 4 results | ||
| IFBench% of instructions, higher is better 118 · 99 of 195 measured | 44.2% | 52.3%thinking reasoning |
| Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 154 · 105 of 233 measured | 50.0% | 71.0%thinking reasoning |
| Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks, higher is better 91 · 105 of 190 measured | 20.5% | 16.7%thinking reasoning |
| τ²-bench telecom% of tasks, higher is better 79 · 108 of 193 measured | 74.3% | 45.6%thinking reasoning |
Compare them with other models
Quick answers
Is Qwen3-Max better than Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview (09-2025)?
They score and cost about the same: pick on the results below that match your work.
Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Qwen3-Max or Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview (09-2025)?
Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview (09-2025) ranks 111 of 198 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 121 for Qwen3-Max.
Which is better for writing, Qwen3-Max or Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview (09-2025)?
Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview (09-2025) ranks 95 of 188 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 99 for Qwen3-Max.
Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3-Max or Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview (09-2025)?
Qwen3-Max ranks 50 of 152 models on sale for summarising without inventing things, and factual answers, against 111 for Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview (09-2025).
Run Qwen3-Max and Gemini 2.5 Flash Preview (09-2025) on your own prompt
Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.