Llama 4 Maverick vs Qwen3 235B A22B

Choose Llama 4 Maverick if you want self-hosted agents that want the Llama ecosystem. Choose Qwen3 235B A22B if you want self-hosted or ultra-cheap open-weight agents.

In our editorial scoring, Qwen3 235B A22B leads in 3 of five dimensions (output quality, agentic ability and value for $), while Llama 4 Maverick leads in 1. On price, Llama 4 Maverick runs about $0.38 per 1M tokens (blended) and is open-weight; Qwen3 235B A22B is about $0.23 and open-weight.

The model is half the story — the agent is the other half

The model picks the moves; the agent runs the loop, the tools, and the guardrails. Once you've chosen a model, see which agent gets the most out of it.