Llama 4 Maverick vs Qwen3 235B A22B
Qwen3 235B A22B has a slight edge in benchmark performance. Qwen3 235B A22B is 2.8x cheaper per token.
Meta · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Llama 4 Maverick outperforms in 3 benchmarks (GPQA, MGSM, MMLU-Pro), while Qwen3 235B A22B is better at 4 benchmarks (LiveCodeBench, MATH, MBPP, MMLU). Qwen3 235B A22B has a slight edge in benchmark performance.
On price, Qwen3 235B A22B is roughly 2.8x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Llama 4 Maverick also accepts a larger context window (1,000,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Llama 4 Maverick
- you process long inputs — it offers a 1,000,000 token context window
Choose Qwen3 235B A22B
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 4 of 7 shared benchmarks
- cost matters — it's about 2.8x cheaper per token
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Apr 2025
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Llama 4 Maverick outperforms in 3 benchmarks (GPQA, MGSM, MMLU-Pro), while Qwen3 235B A22B is better at 4 benchmarks (LiveCodeBench, MATH, MBPP, MMLU).
Qwen3 235B A22B has a slight edge in benchmark performance.
Arena Performance
Playground indexes and blind preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Llama 4 Maverick ($0.17/1M tokens) is 1.7x more expensive than Qwen3 235B A22B ($0.10/1M tokens).
For output processing, Llama 4 Maverick ($0.60/1M tokens) is 6.0x more expensive than Qwen3 235B A22B ($0.10/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Llama 4 Maverick is more expensive than Qwen3 235B A22B.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Llama 4 Maverick has 165.0B more parameters than Qwen3 235B A22B, making it 70.2% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Llama 4 Maverick accepts 1,000,000 input tokens compared to Qwen3 235B A22B's 128,000 tokens. Llama 4 Maverick can generate longer responses up to 1,000,000 tokens, while Qwen3 235B A22B is limited to 128,000 tokens.
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Llama 4 Maverick supports multimodal inputs, whereas Qwen3 235B A22B does not.
Llama 4 Maverick can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Llama 4 Maverick
Qwen3 235B A22B
License
Usage and distribution terms
Llama 4 Maverick is licensed under Llama 4 Community License Agreement, while Qwen3 235B A22B uses Apache 2.0.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Llama 4 Community License Agreement
Open weights
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Llama 4 Maverick was released on 2025-04-05, while Qwen3 235B A22B was released on 2025-04-29.
Qwen3 235B A22B is 1 month newer than Llama 4 Maverick.
Apr 5, 2025
1.4 years ago
Apr 29, 2025
1.3 years ago
3w newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
Llama 4 Maverick is available from DeepInfra, Novita, Lambda, Groq, Fireworks, Together, Sambanova. Qwen3 235B A22B is available from Fireworks, DeepInfra, Novita, Together.
Llama 4 Maverick
Qwen3 235B A22B
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Llama 4 Maverick and Qwen3 235B A22B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Llama 4 Maverick vs Qwen3 235B A22B.