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Model comparison

DeepSeek V4 Pro vs Qwen3-Max

DeepSeek against Qwen, compared on context, price, and verified benchmark results.

Catalog record checked September 3, 2026Individual provider fields may changeEvidence confidence: High — see receipts below

DeepSeek

DeepSeek V4 Pro

Frontier · Open weights

vs

Qwen

Qwen3-Max

Frontier

AI model capability comparison
SpecificationDeepSeek V4 ProQwen3-Max
ProviderDeepSeekQwen
TierFrontierFrontier
Context windowWinner: 1M262K
Max outputWinner: 384K66K
Input / 1M tokens$1.32Winner: $1.20
Output / 1M tokensWinner: $3.96$6
WeightsOpenClosed
Parameters1.6T total / 49B active (MoE)1T (proprietary)
Reasoning levelslow, high, maxlow, high, max
Modalitiestexttext, image, video
LicenseMITNot disclosedUnverified
API model iddeepseek-v4-proqwen3-max
ReleasedApril 24, 2026September 23, 2025
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (2026-08-14)Winner: 5352
SWE-bench Verified (2026-04-24)80.6Not verifiedUnverified
GPQA Diamond (2026-04-24)90.1Not verifiedUnverified
Humanity's Last Exam (2026-04-24)48.2Not verifiedUnverified
MMLU-Pro (2026-04-24)87.5Not verifiedUnverified

Prices are USD per million tokens at standard rates, excluding batch and caching discounts. Bold indicates the better figure where one is objectively better. Values we could not confirm from the provider are shown as “Not verified” rather than estimated.

Benchmark receipts

  • 2026-08-14: Artificial AnalysisComposite index blending reasoning, knowledge, and coding evals into one 0–100 score. Comparability: directly comparable — AA occasionally rebaselines the index scale between snapshots — a score captured on one date is only comparable to same-snapshot scores (check measuredAt).
  • 2026-04-24: DeepSeek V4 Pro HF model card (vendor, Think Max, exact match)Real GitHub issue resolution: does the model's patch pass the hidden tests. Comparability: comparable with caveat — Post-audit vendor claims and pre-audit scores sit on different task trust levels; scaffolding (agent harness, compute budget) also dominates results. Never aggregate across scaffolds.

Pricing tiers: DeepSeek V4 Pro: Official peak rates $1.32/$3.96 per MTok; off-peak $0.66/$1.98 (cache-miss). Open weights (MIT). 1.6T/49B active MoE. · Qwen3-Max: Qwen API $1.20/$6.00 per MTok (≤32K); higher tiers for 32K–256K. OpenRouter lists ~$0.78/$3.90. Proprietary, API-only.

FrontierOpen weightsRecord checked September 3, 2026

DeepSeek V4 Pro

DeepSeek V4 Pro is the open-weight (MIT) flagship with a 1M-token context at a fraction of frontier API cost.

Best for

  • Cost-sensitive hosted agents
  • Open-weight deployments
  • High-volume coding

Watch out

Self-hosting needs datacentre VRAM; hosted rates vary by provider. Price single-source — verify.

FrontierRecord checked September 3, 2026

Qwen3-Max

Qwen3-Max is Alibaba's proprietary 1-trillion-parameter API model with multimodal input.

Best for

  • Agentic coding
  • Multimodal knowledge work
  • Long-context via API

Watch out

Max line is proprietary/API-only (no published weights). Per-provider prices differ.

When the cheaper one wins

DeepSeek V4 Pro is cheaper on output at $3.96 per million tokens against $6 for Qwen3-Max — about 1.5×. Use the cheaper tier for classification, extraction, summarisation, and any task where the expensive model’s extra score does not change the accepted output. The expensive one only pays if your hardest task actually fails on the cheap tier. These are standard-tier API rates, excluding batch and cache discounts.

Run the model picker

Evidence confidence: High

How strong and complete the evidence behind this comparison is — not a prediction of which model is better.

  • Pricing verified on both sides — Input and output rates are verified for both models.
  • 5/5 core specs verified on both sides — All core specifications verified for both models.
  • 1 shared named benchmark (scores match) — Measured on: Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index — scores are equivalent, so the benchmark does not separate the pair.
  • Verified within the last 90 days — Newest catalog check was 8 days ago.
  • Both models carry source citations — Each side has at least two catalog sources on record.

Source receipts

Each catalog figure was checked against the provider or an independent second source on the date shown.

Related comparisons

Diving deeper on one model? DeepSeek V4 Pro · Qwen3-Max

Common questions

DeepSeek V4 Pro vs Qwen3-Max

Answered from the verified figures on this page rather than general guidance.

Is DeepSeek V4 Pro or Qwen3-Max cheaper for input?

Qwen3-Max is cheaper at $1.20 per million input tokens, against $1.32 for DeepSeek V4 Pro — roughly 1.1× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; DeepSeek V4 Pro has tiered pricing: Official peak rates $1.32/$3.96 per MTok; off-peak $0.66/$1.98 (cache-miss). Open weights (MIT). 1.6T/49B active MoE. Qwen3-Max has tiered pricing: Qwen API $1.20/$6.00 per MTok (≤32K); higher tiers for 32K–256K. OpenRouter lists ~$0.78/$3.90. Proprietary, API-only.

Is DeepSeek V4 Pro or Qwen3-Max cheaper for output?

DeepSeek V4 Pro is cheaper at $3.96 per million output tokens, against $6 for Qwen3-Max — roughly 1.5× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; DeepSeek V4 Pro has tiered pricing: Official peak rates $1.32/$3.96 per MTok; off-peak $0.66/$1.98 (cache-miss). Open weights (MIT). 1.6T/49B active MoE. Qwen3-Max has tiered pricing: Qwen API $1.20/$6.00 per MTok (≤32K); higher tiers for 32K–256K. OpenRouter lists ~$0.78/$3.90. Proprietary, API-only.

Which has the larger context window, DeepSeek V4 Pro or Qwen3-Max?

DeepSeek V4 Pro accepts 1M tokens against 262K for Qwen3-Max. This only matters if you routinely send very long documents or large codebases.

Do DeepSeek V4 Pro and Qwen3-Max support the same reasoning levels?

Yes — both accept the same effort settings: "low", "high", "max". Higher effort costs more and takes longer, so start low and raise it only where output quality actually improves.

Should I use DeepSeek V4 Pro or Qwen3-Max?

Both sit in the frontier tier, so the choice usually comes down to price and context rather than capability. DeepSeek V4 Pro suits cost-sensitive hosted agents; Qwen3-Max suits agentic coding.

Can I self-host DeepSeek V4 Pro or Qwen3-Max?

DeepSeek V4 Pro publishes open weights, but self-hosting and third-party provider access depend on the licence, hardware, serving support, and availability. Qwen3-Max is a closed model whose supported access paths are controlled by its provider.

Next step

Choosing between them

The verified figures that separate this pair, computed from the catalog rather than restated boilerplate.

  • Input price: Qwen3-Max costs $1.20 per 1M tokens versus $1.32 for DeepSeek V4 Pro — a 1.1x difference at the headline tier.
  • Context: DeepSeek V4 Pro takes 1M against 262K for Qwen3-Max — only decisive if your prompts approach the smaller window.
  • Measured capability: DeepSeek V4 Pro leads Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index 53 to 52 (measured 2026-08-14).
  • Deployment: DeepSeek V4 Pro publishes weights you can self-host; the other is API-only.
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