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Qwen3-Max

Qwen3-Max is a Qwen model from Alibaba, released in 2025-12. It costs $0.78 / $3.9 per 1M, has a 262k-token context window, and is best for multilingual, apac, open-weights. Last verified 2026-05-06.

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Spec sheet

Pricing

Input
$0.78 / 1M
Output
$3.9 / 1M
Free tier
OpenRouter

Context & speed

Context window
262k tokens
Max output
33k tokens
Throughput
~120 tok/s
Time to first token
~500 ms
Speed tier
balanced

Capabilities

Tool use
Yes
Structured output
Yes
Prompt caching
No
Extended thinking
Yes
Vision input
No
Audio in / out
No
Fine-tuning
Yes

Deployment

Open weights
Yes
On-prem
Yes
HIPAA eligible
No
Zero retention
No
Regions
apac

Estimated monthly cost

Assumes typical token shape: 2k input, 600 output per call. Prompt caching is excluded from these figures.

10k calls/mo
$39.00
per month
100k calls/mo
$390.00
per month
1M calls/mo
$3.9k
per month

When to use Qwen3-Max

Sweet spot

  • multilingual
  • apac
  • open weights
  • cheap frontier

Known trade-offs

  • APAC region for hosted API
  • strongest at Chinese + multilingual first
  • no native vision modality

Best use cases

Best LLM for Translation

Best for Chinese and pan-Asian languages with 262K context and open-weight option

Best LLM for On-prem

Best open-weights multilingual generalist with 262K context

Works with

Alibaba SDKOpenAI-compatible APIOpenRouterOllamavLLMLangChain

Compare Qwen3-Max to other models

vs GLM-5.1vs GPT-5.4 Minivs Gemini 3 Flashvs Claude Haiku 4.5vs Grok 4.3vs Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite

FAQ — Qwen3-Max

How much does Qwen3-Max cost?

Qwen3-Max costs $0.78 / $3.9 per 1M tokens on the Alibaba API. This model does not currently support prompt caching, so list price is the full cost.

What is the context window of Qwen3-Max?

Qwen3-Max has a 262k-token context window with up to 33k tokens of output. That's enough for long reports, extended chat histories, or structured document analysis.

Does Qwen3-Max have a free tier?

Yes — Often available free via OpenRouter; official API is cheap and tiered. Start at https://openrouter.ai/qwen/qwen3-max.

Is Qwen3-Max HIPAA / EU / on-prem friendly?

Qwen3-Max is not HIPAA-eligible, not available in an EU region, and offers open weights for self-hosting. Zero data retention is not available.

What is Qwen3-Max best for?

Qwen3-Max is best for multilingual, apac, open weights, cheap frontier. Trade-offs to be aware of: APAC region for hosted API; strongest at Chinese + multilingual first; no native vision modality.

Which tools and SDKs work with Qwen3-Max?

Qwen3-Max integrates with Alibaba SDK, OpenAI-compatible API, OpenRouter, Ollama, vLLM, LangChain. Most major AI frameworks support it either natively or through OpenAI-compatible endpoints.