Qwen3 Max Thinking vs Solar Mini 4

Qwen3 Max Thinking and Solar Mini 4 are closely matched at 32.8 and 31.9 on the LLM Stats Score. Solar Mini 4 is 13.7x cheaper per token.

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Upstage · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Qwen3 Max Thinking and Solar Mini 4 are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 32.8 and 31.9.

The models split the 2 individual benchmarks reported for both models evenly.

On price, Solar Mini 4 is roughly 13.7x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

Solar Mini 4 also accepts a larger context window (524,288 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.

Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose Qwen3 Max Thinking

you want predictable pricing at $1.20/M input and $6.00/M output

Choose Solar Mini 4

cost matters — it's about 13.7x cheaper per token
you process long inputs — it offers a 524,288 token context window
you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2026

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Better token value: Solar Mini 4

Qwen3 Max Thinking

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Solar Mini 4

Upstage

Core performance indexes

LLM Stats Score

32.8

#117 · 33 evals

Best

31.9

#122 · 6 evals

Reasoning

33.9

#104 · 26 evals

Best

31.7

#120 · 6 evals

Coding

16.2

#140 · 3 evals

17.1

#135 · 2 evals

Best

Agents

9.9

#133 · 8 evals

Best

2.6

#179 · 3 evals

Cost, coverage & limits

Benchmark wins

1 of 2

Input price

$1.20 / M

$0.10 / M

Best

Output price

$6.00 / M

$0.40 / M

Best

Context window

256,000

524,288

Best

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

1 shared

Index

Qwen3 Max Thinking

Solar Mini 4

Math

31.7#67 · 8 evals

25.5#113 · 2 evals

Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

34 reported for Qwen3 Max Thinking · 6 for Solar Mini 4

2 shared

Qwen3 Max Thinking outperforms in 1 benchmarks (Humanity's Last Exam (no tools, text-only)), while Solar Mini 4 is better at 1 benchmark (AA-LCR).

Both models are evenly matched across the benchmarks.

Thu Oct 08 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Solar Mini 4 costs less

For input processing, Qwen3 Max Thinking ($1.20/1M tokens) is 12.0x more expensive than Solar Mini 4 ($0.10/1M tokens).

For output processing, Qwen3 Max Thinking ($6.00/1M tokens) is 15.0x more expensive than Solar Mini 4 ($0.40/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Qwen3 Max Thinking is more expensive than Solar Mini 4.*

* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens

Lowest available price from all providers

Thu Oct 08 2026 • llm-stats.com

Qwen3 Max Thinking

Input tokens$1.20

Output tokens$6.00

Best providerDeepinfra

Solar Mini 4

Input tokens$0.10

Output tokens$0.40

Best providerUnknown Organization

Notice missing or incorrect data?

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

965.0B diff

Qwen3 Max Thinking has 965.0B more parameters than Solar Mini 4, making it 2757.1% larger.

Qwen3 Max Thinking

1.0Tparameters

Solar Mini 4

35.0Bparameters

1000.0B

Qwen3 Max Thinking

35.0B

Solar Mini 4

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Solar Mini 4 accepts 524,288 input tokens compared to Qwen3 Max Thinking's 256,000 tokens. Qwen3 Max Thinking can generate longer responses up to 256,000 tokens, while Solar Mini 4 is limited to 131,072 tokens.

Qwen3 Max Thinking

Input256,000 tokens

Output256,000 tokens

Solar Mini 4

Input524,288 tokens

Output131,072 tokens

Thu Oct 08 2026 • llm-stats.com

License

Usage and distribution terms

Both models are licensed under proprietary licenses.

Both models have usage restrictions defined by their respective organizations.

Qwen3 Max Thinking

Proprietary

Closed source

Solar Mini 4

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Qwen3 Max Thinking was released on 2026-02-13, while Solar Mini 4 was released on 2026-09-22.

Solar Mini 4 is 7 months newer than Qwen3 Max Thinking.

Qwen3 Max Thinking

Feb 13, 2026

7 months ago

Solar Mini 4

Sep 22, 2026

2 weeks ago

7mo newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Solar Mini 4 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2026-02-01, while Qwen3 Max Thinking's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Solar Mini 4's training data extends to 2026-02-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Qwen3 Max Thinking's cutoff date.

Qwen3 Max Thinking

—

Solar Mini 4

Feb 2026

Provider Availability

Qwen3 Max Thinking is available from DeepInfra. Solar Mini 4 is available from Upstage.

Qwen3 Max Thinking

Deepinfra

Input Price:Input: $1.20/1MOutput Price:Output: $6.00/1M

Solar Mini 4

Unknown Organization

Input Price:Input: $0.10/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.40/1M

* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Qwen3 Max Thinking and Solar Mini 4 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Qwen3 Max Thinking

✓ Preferred

Solar Mini 4

Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Qwen3 Max Thinking vs Solar Mini 4.

Which is better, Qwen3 Max Thinking or Solar Mini 4?

Qwen3 Max Thinking and Solar Mini 4 are closely matched on the LLM Stats Score at 32.8 and 31.9. Qwen3 Max Thinking is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team and Solar Mini 4 is made by Upstage. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does Qwen3 Max Thinking compare to Solar Mini 4 in benchmarks?

Qwen3 Max Thinking scores C-Eval: 93.7%, IFEval: 93.4%, AIME 2026: 93.3%, MMLU-Redux: 92.8%, GPQA: 87.4%. Solar Mini 4 scores AA-LCR: 83.3%, SciCode: 47.6%, GDPval-AA 2.1: 35.7%, AA-Briefcase v1.1: 29.1%, Humanity's Last Exam (no tools, text-only): 25.8%.

Is Qwen3 Max Thinking cheaper than Solar Mini 4?

Solar Mini 4 is 12.0x cheaper for input tokens. Qwen3 Max Thinking costs $1.20/M input and $6.00/M output via deepinfra. Solar Mini 4 costs $0.10/M input and $0.40/M output via upstage.

What are the context window sizes for Qwen3 Max Thinking and Solar Mini 4?

Qwen3 Max Thinking supports 256K tokens and Solar Mini 4 supports 524K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Qwen3 Max Thinking and Solar Mini 4?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (32.8 vs 31.9), context window (256K vs 524K), input pricing ($1.20 vs $0.10/M). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Qwen3 Max Thinking and Solar Mini 4?

Qwen3 Max Thinking is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team and Solar Mini 4 is developed by Upstage.

Qwen3 Max Thinking vs Solar Mini 4