Compare / Qwen3-Max vs gpt-oss-120b

Qwen3-Max vs gpt-oss-120b

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 17 results on 4 sources that measured both models.

AlibabaQwen3-Max Released 24 Sep 2025 · $0.78 in · $3.90 out
OpenAIgpt-oss-120b Released 5 Aug 2025 · $0.15 in · $0.60 out
Qwen3-Max wins 12gpt-oss-120b wins 5

Of the 17 results both models have, the better value on each. Results whose reported ranges overlap are too close to call.

Results as of 9 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-09-dd620e778ac5). See also Alibaba vs OpenAI, every model from both labs.

Qwen3-Max or gpt-oss-120b? The short answer

Pick Qwen3-Max if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 15.6 against 11.6). Pick gpt-oss-120b if cost matters more: it costs 5.9 times less per token.

  • gpt-oss-120b is cheaper: $0.26 against $1.56 per million tokens, 5.9 times less.
  • Qwen3-Max scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 15.6 against 11.6.
  • Qwen3-Max is newer: released 24 Sep 2025, against 5 Aug 2025 for gpt-oss-120b.
  • On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Qwen3-Max does better for agents and tool use and writing; gpt-oss-120b for reasoning and knowledge.

Head to head

15.6
Intelligence Index
11.6
$1.56
Price per million tokens, blendedlower is better
$0.26
262,144
Context window, tokens
131,072

Every fact side by side

Qwen3-Maxgpt-oss-120b
Price per million tokens$0.78 in · $3.90 out$0.15 in · $0.60 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$1.56$0.26
Cheapest host, blended–$0.065 (CoreWeave, FP4)
Intelligence Index15.611.6
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second–188
Context window262,144 tokens131,072 tokens
Released24 Sep 2025 (newer)5 Aug 2025
WeightsClosedOpen
Developer based inChinathe 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.

Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 154 of 164 120 of 164
Professional workReal tasks from banking, consulting and law, business documents and freelance projects not measured 49 of 51
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 121 of 198 114 of 198
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 99 of 188 133 of 188
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 50 of 152 139 of 152

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.

MeasureQwen3-Maxgpt-oss-120b
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results
Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 108 · 187 of 387 measured 1,423 1,352
Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 110 · 183 of 380 measured 1,419 1,352
Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 105 · 238 of 385 measured 1,393 1,278
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 123 · 157 of 243 measured 15.6 11.6high reasoning
GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 132 · 118 of 231 measured 76.4% 78.2%high reasoning
Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 140 · 110 of 242 measured 11.9% 19.6%high reasoning
UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results
Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 115 · 116 of 230 measured 38.6 38.5medium reasoning
Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better 134 · 224 of 230 measured 23.0% 107.0%medium reasoning
Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better 155 · 217 of 230 measured 0.33 0.29medium reasoning
Vending-Bench 2 reported by Vending-Bench 2 · 1 result
Money after a yearUS dollars, higher is better 52 · 56 of 58 measured $71.57 $-21.53
Show all 17 results (7 more)
MeasureQwen3-Maxgpt-oss-120b
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results
Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 137 · 188 of 338 measured 1,417 1,357
Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 106 · 204 of 387 measured 1,413 1,323
Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 101 · 215 of 386 measured 1,405 1,309
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 4 results
IFBench% of instructions, higher is better 118 · 58 of 195 measured 44.2% 69.0%high reasoning
Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 154 · 152 of 233 measured 50.0% 52.0%high reasoning
Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks, higher is better 91 · 84 of 190 measured 20.5% 23.5%high reasoning
τ²-bench telecom% of tasks, higher is better 79 · 86 of 193 measured 74.3% 65.8%high reasoning

Quick answers

Is Qwen3-Max better than gpt-oss-120b?

Pick Qwen3-Max if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 15.6 against 11.6). Pick gpt-oss-120b if cost matters more: it costs 5.9 times less per token.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3-Max or gpt-oss-120b?

gpt-oss-120b is cheaper: $0.26 against $1.56 per million tokens, 5.9 times less.

Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3-Max or gpt-oss-120b?

gpt-oss-120b ranks 120 of 164 models on sale for multi-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls, against 154 for Qwen3-Max.

Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Qwen3-Max or gpt-oss-120b?

gpt-oss-120b ranks 114 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 gpt-oss-120b?

Qwen3-Max ranks 99 of 188 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 133 for gpt-oss-120b.

Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3-Max or gpt-oss-120b?

Qwen3-Max ranks 50 of 152 models on sale for summarising without inventing things, and factual answers, against 139 for gpt-oss-120b.

Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3-Max or gpt-oss-120b?

Qwen3-Max: 262,144 tokens, against 131,072 for gpt-oss-120b.

Run Qwen3-Max and gpt-oss-120b on your own prompt

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