Gemini 4 Argon versus Qwen3.8 Max 0902

The match-up at a glance

Gemini 4 Argon and Qwen3.8 Max 0902 are two frontier models, the ones you pick when quality comes first, one from Google DeepMind, the other from Alibaba Cloud (Qwen). Gemini 4 Argon was released on October 13, 2026, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 on September 2, 2026.

All figures below come from public sources checked on October 22, 2026: models.dev and OpenRouter for prices and capabilities, Epoch AI for scores.

Performance

On our capability index, Gemini 4 Argon scores 95.3 out of 100 and Qwen3.8 Max 0902 88.4. Gemini 4 Argon leads by 6.9 points.

On the 3 benchmarks reported for both, Gemini 4 Argon wins 2 times and Qwen3.8 Max 0902 0:

• GPQA Diamond (PhD-level science questions): Gemini 4 Argon 96.4%, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 92.3%
• OTIS Mock AIME (competition mathematics problems): Gemini 4 Argon 100%, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 100%
• FrontierMath (very hard research-level mathematics): Gemini 4 Argon 86%, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 65.6%

Which one costs less?

Gemini 4 Argon costs $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens; Qwen3.8 Max 0902 costs $2 and $6.

For a typical agent task (read 20,000 tokens, write 2,000), expect $0.06 with Gemini 4 Argon versus $0.052 with Qwen3.8 Max 0902. Qwen3.8 Max 0902 is 1.2 times cheaper, a gap that adds up quickly over 1,000 tasks: $8 difference.

Run the numbers with your own volumes in the agent cost calculator.

Context and capabilities

Gemini 4 Argon reads more in one go: 1,048,576 tokens of context (roughly 1,573 pages), versus 1,000,000 for Qwen3.8 Max 0902.

Reasoning mode: Gemini 4 Argon yes, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 yes. Tool calling: Gemini 4 Argon yes, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 yes. Image input: Gemini 4 Argon yes, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 yes.

Neither publishes its weights: both are used through an API.

In short

Our reading of the data:

• Choose Gemini 4 Argon for a higher capability index.
• Choose Qwen3.8 Max 0902 for a lower cost.

This verdict relies on public figures; it does not replace a trial on your own tasks.