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© 2026 CompareLLM. Public benchmark data aggregated from Arena Elo, LiveBench, SWE-bench & OpenRouter.

Every score has a dated snapshot.

  1. Home
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  3. OpenAI: o3 Mini vs Qwen 3 Max

Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 16, 2026

OpenAI: o3 Mini vs Qwen 3 Max benchmark

This page compares OpenAI: o3 Mini (OpenAI) and Qwen 3 Max (Alibaba) using the latest snapshots we have as of Aug 16, 2026. On preference Elo, OpenAI: o3 Mini is ahead by 42 points (1,560 vs 1,518; seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). On SWE-bench coding, OpenAI: o3 Mini resolves 78.5% versus 67.8% (seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). OpenAI: o3 Mini streams faster (92 tok/s) while Qwen 3 Max is the cheaper output token ($3.9/1M). Qwen 3 Max has the larger context window (262k tokens). Every cell below is a dated snapshot from a named public source — we do not invent missing scores, and we do not run SWE-bench ourselves.

Quick answer

OpenAI: o3 Mini vs Qwen 3 Max is a dated snapshot, not a lab score. OpenAI: o3 Mini leads preference Elo (1,560 vs 1,518). OpenAI: o3 Mini leads SWE-bench coding. Qwen 3 Max is the cheaper output token. Elo is crowd preference, not an exam. Pick the column that matches the job.
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OpenAI

OpenAI: o3 Mini

Auto-discovered from OpenRouter (openai/o3-mini). Preview until a second source matches.

Elo 1,560$4.4/1M out

Alibaba

Qwen 3 Max

Alibaba flagship. Strong math and multilingual code.

Elo 1,518$3.9/1M out

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Instant pairwise benchmark recalculation across 400+ LLMs

Model A
Model B
Quick vs:vs Claude Opus 4.5vs Claude Opus 4.6vs Claude Sonnet 4.5vs Claude 3.7 Sonnet

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

OpenAI: o3 Mini (6)vsQwen 3 Max (4)
OpenAI: o3 Mini: 6W (60%)Overall: OpenAI: o3 MiniQwen 3 Max: 4W (40%)
← OpenAI: o3 MiniQwen 3 Max →
OpenAI: o3 Mini (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo
1,560vs1,518
Coding Elo
1,585vs1,526
SWE-bench
78.5%vs67.8%
LiveBench
72.4%vs69.4%
GPQA Diamond
87.2%vs83.1%
OpenAI: o3 Mini: 5WQwen 3 Max: 0W
Tied (1/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed
92 tok/svs80 tok/s
Time to first token
290 msvs280 ms
OpenAI: o3 Mini: 1WQwen 3 Max: 1W
Qwen 3 Max (3/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price
$4.4/1Mvs$3.9/1M
Input price
$1.1/1Mvs$0.78/1M
Context window
200kvs262k
OpenAI: o3 Mini: 0WQwen 3 Max: 3W
Capability Matchup Radar

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Each spoke is a skill. Farther from the center is better (0–100th percentile). Tap any dot to inspect details.

Tap any node to inspect
Percentile 0–100
Dimensional AdvantageOpenAI: o3 Mini 4/6
Preference Elo

OpenAI: o3 Mini

42 pts advantage

Throughput Speed

OpenAI: o3 Mini

12 tok/s faster

Price Efficiency

Qwen 3 Max

$0.50/1M cheaper

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

—
Elo
High is better
+3%1,560
EloHigh is better
1,518
Code Elo
High is better
+4%1,585
Code EloHigh is better
1,526
LiveBench
High is better
+4%72.4%
LiveBenchHigh is better
69.4%
SWE-bench
High is better
+16%78.5%
SWE-benchHigh is better
67.8%
GPQA
High is better
+5%87.2%
GPQAHigh is better
83.1%
TTFT
Low is better
290 ms
TTFTLow is better
280 ms+4%
Speed
High is better
+15%92 tok/s
SpeedHigh is better
80 tok/s
In $
Low is better
$1.1/1M
In $Low is better
$0.78/1M+41%
Out $
Low is better
$4.4/1M
Out $Low is better
$3.9/1M+13%
Context
High is better
200k
ContextHigh is better
262k+31%
Interactive Simulator

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Simulate monthly production API costs based on published $/1M tokens.

Save up to 18% with Qwen 3 Max
Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo
Quick Presets:
Token Ratio (In vs Out)70% In / 30% Out
RAG / Search (10% out)Coding / Chat (50% out)
OpenAI: o3 Mini$104.50 / mo
In: $38.50Out: $66.00
Qwen 3 Max$85.80 / mo
In: $27.30Out: $58.50
Estimated Cost Delta

Qwen 3 Max is estimated to save $18.70/month ($224/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

  • 1
    OpenAI: o3 Mini:Pick OpenAI: o3 Mini when repo-level coding accuracy is the constraint.
  • 2
    Qwen 3 Max:Pick Qwen 3 Max when you are optimizing output cost.
  • 3
    Qwen 3 Max:Pick Qwen 3 Max when time-to-first-token matters more than peak Elo.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsOpenAI: o3 Mini

Higher SWE-bench (78.5%).

High-volume chatQwen 3 Max

Lower output list price ($3.9/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIQwen 3 Max

Lower TTFT (280 ms).

Long-document RAGQwen 3 Max

Larger window (262k).

Screenshots / visionQwen 3 Max

Qwen 3 Max is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target WorkloadRecommended PickEvaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agentsOpenAI: o3 MiniHigher SWE-bench (78.5%).
High-volume chatQwen 3 MaxLower output list price ($3.9/1M).
Voice / low-latency UIQwen 3 MaxLower TTFT (280 ms).
Long-document RAGQwen 3 MaxLarger window (262k).
Screenshots / visionQwen 3 MaxQwen 3 Max is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

View all news
launchApr 18, 2026

Qwen 3 Max: Alibaba’s flagship for math and multilingual code

Closed flagship. Strong math. Compare to Sol and Opus on GPQA and SWE-bench, not on brand heat.

launchSep 20, 2025

Qwen3 235B: the open MoE Qwen, not the Max SKU

Sep 2025 open-weight mixture-of-experts. Self-host path. Don’t confuse it with Qwen 3 Max.

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CompareLLM Matrix

Verified head-to-head card

LIVE
VS
OpenAI

OpenAI: o3 Mini

Elo 1,560
LiveBench72.4%
SWE-bench78.5%
Speed92 tok/s
Output cost$4.4/1M
Alibaba

Qwen 3 Max

Elo 1,518
LiveBench69.4%
SWE-bench67.8%
Speed80 tok/s
Output cost$3.9/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, OpenAI: o3 Mini or Qwen 3 Max?
OpenAI: o3 Mini has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,560). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.
Which is better at coding, OpenAI: o3 Mini or Qwen 3 Max?
OpenAI: o3 Mini leads SWE-bench at 78.5% vs 67.8%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.
Which is cheaper to run in production?
Qwen 3 Max output tokens are $3.9/1M versus $4.4/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, OpenAI: o3 Mini or Qwen 3 Max?
Qwen 3 Max has the lower time-to-first-token (280 ms vs 290 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.
Which has the larger context window?
Qwen 3 Max accepts 262k tokens versus 200k.
Can I self-host either model?
Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.
Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?
No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.
What does preference Elo mean on this page?
Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. OpenAI: o3 Mini and Qwen 3 Max Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Related news

  • launch · Apr 18, 2026

    Qwen 3 Max: Alibaba’s flagship for math and multilingual code

  • launch · Sep 20, 2025

    Qwen3 235B: the open MoE Qwen, not the Max SKU

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All OpenAI: o3 Mini matchups →|All Qwen 3 Max matchups →
OpenAI: o3 Mini vs OpenAI o1-mini (previous gpt-mini)OpenAI: o3 Mini vs GPT-5 mini (next gpt-mini)Qwen 3 Max vs Qwen QwQ 32B (previous qwen)Qwen 3 Max vs Qwen3.8 27B (next qwen)GPT-5 vs OpenAI: o3 MiniGPT-5.6 Terra vs OpenAI: o3 Mini