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Qwen3-Max-Thinking

From Alibaba Cloud

Alibaba’s Flagship Reasoning Powerhouse – Advanced Tool-Use, Test-Time Scaling, and Top-Tier Performance on Knowledge, STEM, and Agentic Tasks
Tool Release Date

25 Jan 2026

Tool Users
N/A
0.0

Pricing Model

Starting Price

$0/Month

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About This AI

Qwen3-Max-Thinking is the latest flagship reasoning model from Alibaba’s Qwen team, released on January 25, 2026, as an enhancement to the Qwen3-Max series.

It pushes boundaries in factual knowledge, complex reasoning, instruction following, human preference alignment, and agent capabilities through scaled parameters and heavy reinforcement learning.

Key innovations include adaptive on-demand tool use (Search, Memory, Code Interpreter) to reduce hallucinations, access real-time info, and enable personalized/code-based responses.

It employs a test-time scaling strategy with experience-cumulative multi-round heavy mode for iterative self-reflection and better context efficiency.

The model excels across 19 benchmarks, achieving scores like 85.7 on MMLU-Pro, 93.7 on C-Eval, 87.4 on GPQA, 85.9 on LiveCodeBench v6, 90.2 on Arena-Hard v2, and 82.1 on Tau² Bench.

With thinking mode and tools, it reaches perfect or near-perfect results on math benchmarks (e.g., 100 percent on AIME25, HMMT) and outperforms or matches GPT-5.2-Thinking, Claude-Opus-4.5, Gemini 3 Pro, and DeepSeek V3.2 in many areas.

Available via Qwen Chat for interactive use with tools enabled, and API access (model name qwen3-max-2026-01-23) through Alibaba Cloud Model Studio with OpenAI/Anthropic-compatible endpoints.

It supports enable_thinking parameter for reasoning display and is positioned as a leading proprietary reasoning model for agentic workloads and expert-level tasks.

Key Features

  1. Adaptive tool-use: Autonomously invokes Search, Memory, and Code Interpreter tools during conversations for real-time info and reduced hallucinations
  2. Test-time scaling: Multi-round heavy mode with experience-cumulative self-reflection for superior reasoning performance
  3. Strong knowledge and reasoning: High scores on MMLU-Pro, C-Eval, GPQA, LiveCodeBench, Arena-Hard, and more
  4. Agentic capabilities: Excellent tool calling, function execution, planning, and multi-step task handling
  5. Math and STEM excellence: Perfect or near-perfect on AIME25, HMMT, and other advanced math benchmarks with tools
  6. Alignment and instruction following: Improved human preference alignment and precise prompt adherence
  7. API compatibility: Works with OpenAI and Anthropic protocols via DashScope endpoints
  8. Thinking mode: Displays step-by-step reasoning when enabled for transparency and better outputs

Price Plans

  1. Free Tier (Limited): Basic access via Qwen Chat with potential daily quotas or lighter mode
  2. API (Token-based): Pay-per-use pricing through Alibaba Cloud Model Studio (exact rates like input/output tokens not detailed in announcement; contact for enterprise)
  3. Enterprise (Custom): Volume-based or dedicated plans for high-usage teams or integrations

Pros

  1. Top-tier reasoning performance: Matches or beats leading models like GPT-5.2-Thinking and Claude-Opus-4.5 on multiple benchmarks
  2. Native tool integration: Built-in search, memory, and code execution reduce errors and enable agentic workflows
  3. Test-time scaling gains: Significant improvements from iterative self-reflection in heavy mode
  4. Accessible API: Compatible with popular SDKs for easy developer integration
  5. Strong in Chinese and global tasks: Excels in multilingual knowledge and reasoning scenarios
  6. Rapid release cycle: Continuous advancements from Qwen team keep it competitive

Cons

  1. Proprietary access: Available only through Alibaba Cloud API or Qwen Chat; no open weights
  2. Potential latency in heavy mode: Multi-round thinking increases response time for complex queries
  3. API pricing: Token-based costs apply (details not fully specified in announcement)
  4. Recent release: Limited long-term user feedback or third-party evaluations yet
  5. China-focused optimization: May perform best in Chinese-language or Alibaba ecosystem contexts
  6. No local/offline deployment: Requires cloud access for full capabilities

Use Cases

  1. Complex reasoning tasks: Solving advanced math, science, or logic problems with step-by-step thinking
  2. Agentic applications: Building autonomous agents that use tools for search, code, or memory
  3. Research and analysis: Factual knowledge queries, multi-step planning, and expert-level evaluations
  4. Coding and development: Agentic coding, debugging, and function calling in programming scenarios
  5. Instruction-heavy workflows: Precise task execution and alignment with detailed prompts
  6. Multilingual knowledge work: Handling questions across languages with high accuracy

Target Audience

  1. AI researchers and developers: Testing frontier reasoning and agent capabilities
  2. Professionals in STEM: Needing accurate math, science, and technical reasoning
  3. Enterprise teams: Integrating via API for knowledge-intensive or agentic applications
  4. Students and educators: Advanced problem-solving and learning support
  5. Agent builders: Creating tool-using autonomous systems

How To Use

  1. Access Qwen Chat: Visit chat.qwen.ai and select Qwen3-Max-Thinking from model options
  2. Enable thinking: Use enable_thinking: True in prompts or interface for step-by-step reasoning
  3. API setup: Register at Alibaba Cloud, activate Model Studio, create API key
  4. Call the model: Use compatible SDKs (OpenAI/Anthropic format) with base URL dashscope-intl.aliyuncs.com
  5. Prompt effectively: Include complex tasks or tool needs; model auto-invokes Search/Code/Memory
  6. Heavy mode: For toughest problems, request multi-round reflection or scaled thinking
  7. Monitor usage: Track tokens and costs via Alibaba Cloud dashboard for API calls

How we rated Qwen3-Max-Thinking

  • Performance: 4.9/5
  • Accuracy: 4.8/5
  • Features: 4.9/5
  • Cost-Efficiency: 4.5/5
  • Ease of Use: 4.6/5
  • Customization: 4.7/5
  • Data Privacy: 4.4/5
  • Support: 4.5/5
  • Integration: 4.8/5
  • Overall Score: 4.8/5

Qwen3-Max-Thinking integration with other tools

  1. Qwen Chat Interface: Direct web access with tool support and model switching
  2. OpenAI-Compatible API: Use with OpenAI SDKs via DashScope endpoint for easy migration
  3. Anthropic-Compatible API: Supports Claude-style protocols for developer tools
  4. Alibaba Cloud Model Studio: Enterprise dashboard for API keys, usage tracking, and scaling
  5. Third-Party Frameworks: Compatible with LangChain, LlamaIndex, or custom agents via API

Best prompts optimised for Qwen3-Max-Thinking

  1. Solve this graduate-level physics problem step-by-step with detailed reasoning, using tools if needed for calculations or references: [insert problem]
  2. Act as an expert software engineer: plan and execute a multi-step coding task to build a web scraper in Python, using code interpreter for testing
  3. Analyze this complex dataset summary and generate insights with real-time search for latest context: [insert data]
  4. Reason through this IMO-level math competition problem, showing all steps and verifying answers: [insert problem]
  5. You are a research assistant: search current sources, synthesize information, and provide a comprehensive report on [topic]
Qwen3-Max-Thinking is Alibaba’s strongest reasoning model yet, delivering exceptional performance on knowledge, STEM, and agentic benchmarks through adaptive tools and test-time scaling. It rivals or beats global leaders in many areas, with seamless API access for developers. A powerful choice for complex reasoning and tool-using tasks, though proprietary and cloud-dependent.

FAQs

  • What is Qwen3-Max-Thinking?

    Qwen3-Max-Thinking is Alibaba’s latest flagship reasoning model from the Qwen team, released January 25, 2026, featuring adaptive tool-use, test-time scaling, and top performance on reasoning, knowledge, and agent benchmarks.

  • When was Qwen3-Max-Thinking released?

    It was officially announced and released on January 25, 2026, as an advancement to the Qwen3-Max series.

  • How does Qwen3-Max-Thinking compare to other models?

    It matches or outperforms GPT-5.2-Thinking, Claude-Opus-4.5, and Gemini 3 Pro on many benchmarks, especially with tools and heavy thinking mode.

  • Is Qwen3-Max-Thinking free to use?

    Available free in Qwen Chat with limits; API access is token-based paid through Alibaba Cloud Model Studio.

  • What tools does Qwen3-Max-Thinking support?

    It natively uses Search, Memory, and Code Interpreter tools automatically during reasoning to enhance accuracy and capabilities.

  • How can I access Qwen3-Max-Thinking?

    Via Qwen Chat at chat.qwen.ai (select model) or API with Alibaba Cloud account and key (OpenAI/Anthropic compatible endpoints).

  • What are the standout benchmarks for Qwen3-Max-Thinking?

    Highlights include 85.7 on MMLU-Pro, 87.4 on GPQA, 90.2 on Arena-Hard v2, and perfect scores on AIME25/HMMT with tools.

  • Does Qwen3-Max-Thinking have thinking mode?

    Yes, enable_thinking parameter shows step-by-step reasoning; heavy mode uses multi-round scaling for toughest problems.

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