GPT-5 Pro vs Claude Opus 4.5 vs Qwen3.6 Max Preview
Too close to call on our weighted score (Claude Opus 4.5 55, Qwen3.6 Max Preview 54, GPT-5 Pro 54). The right pick depends on what you value most.
OpenAIGPT-5 Pro
54/100- ECI150.3
- Price$15.00 / $120.00
- Context400K
AnthropicClaude Opus 4.5
55/100- ECI150.1
- Price$5.00 / $25.00
- Context200K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.6 Max Preview
54/100- ECI149.2
- Price$1.30 / $7.80
- Context262K
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Claude Opus 4.5 55/100, Qwen3.6 Max Preview 54/100, GPT-5 Pro 54/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: GPT-5 Pro for raw capability and Qwen3.6 Max Preview on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGPT-5 ProCapabilities Index (ECI): GPT-5 Pro 150.3 · Claude Opus 4.5 150.1 · Qwen3.6 Max Preview 149.2
- Lowest priceQwen3.6 Max PreviewQwen3.6 Max Preview $2.92 · Claude Opus 4.5 $10.00 · GPT-5 Pro $41.25 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGPT-5 ProGPT-5 Pro 400,000 · Qwen3.6 Max Preview 262,144 · Claude Opus 4.5 200,000 tokens
- Widest inputsClaude Opus 4.5GPT-5 Pro: Text, Images · Claude Opus 4.5: Text, Images, PDFs · Qwen3.6 Max Preview: Text
- Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | GPT-5 Pro | Claude Opus 4.5 | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 78 | 78 | 77 |
| Price | 25% | 0 | 2 | 28 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 70 | 80 | 35 |
| Context window | 10% | 44 | 32 | 37 |
| Overall | 100% | 54/100 | 55/100 | 54/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | GPT-5 ProOpenAI | Claude Opus 4.5Anthropic | Qwen3.6 Max PreviewAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 150.3 (best) | 150.1 | 149.2 |
| ECI rank | #46 of 148 (best) | #48 of 148 | #54 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | — | 86.1% | 87.4% (best) |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 55.8% (best) | 34.4% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | — | 86.1% | 91.1% (best) |
| SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues | — | 76.7% | 76.7% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | — | 45.7% | 52.0% (best) |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $15.00 | $5.00 | $1.30 (best) |
| Output | $120.00 | $25.00 | $7.80 (best) |
| Cached input | — | $0.50 | $0.13 (best) |
| Blended (3:1) | $41.25 | $10.00 | $2.92 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official OpenAI API | Official Anthropic API | Official Alibaba API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 400,000 tokens (best) | 200,000 tokens | 262,144 tokens |
| Max output | 272,000 tokens (best) | 64,000 tokens | 65,536 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | Yes | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yeshigh | Yeslow · medium · high | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | Yes | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | gpt-5-pro | claude-opus-4-5 | qwen3.6-max-preview |
| API providers | 12 | 28 (best) | 10 |
| Released | Oct 6, 2025 | Nov 24, 2025 | Apr 20, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Sep 30, 2024 | May 2025 | Apr 2025 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- GPT-5 Pro$390.00
- Claude Opus 4.5$100.00
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview$28.60
Which should you choose?
Which is better: GPT-5 Pro, Claude Opus 4.5 or Qwen3.6 Max Preview?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Claude Opus 4.5 55/100, Qwen3.6 Max Preview 54/100, GPT-5 Pro 54/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: GPT-5 Pro for raw capability and Qwen3.6 Max Preview on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, GPT-5 Pro, Claude Opus 4.5 or Qwen3.6 Max Preview?
Qwen3.6 Max Preview is cheaper at $1.30 input / $7.80 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Claude Opus 4.5 costs $5.00 input / $25.00 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price); GPT-5 Pro costs $15.00 input / $120.00 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $2.92 per million tokens for Qwen3.6 Max Preview versus $10.00 for Claude Opus 4.5 (3.4× as much) and $41.25 for GPT-5 Pro (14× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
GPT-5 Pro scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): GPT-5 Pro 150.3 (#46 of 148), Claude Opus 4.5 150.1 (#48 of 148) and Qwen3.6 Max Preview 149.2 (#54 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (148.5–152.8 vs 147.9–153.0), so treat the gap as small.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for GPT-5 Pro yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, GPT-5 Pro leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
GPT-5 Pro has the largest context window at 400,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3.6 Max Preview and 200,000 for Claude Opus 4.5. Maximum output per response: GPT-5 Pro up to 272,000, Claude Opus 4.5 up to 64,000, Qwen3.6 Max Preview up to 65,536 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
GPT-5 Pro accepts text and images; Claude Opus 4.5 accepts text, images and PDFs; Qwen3.6 Max Preview accepts text. Claude Opus 4.5 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
No. GPT-5 Pro, Claude Opus 4.5 and Qwen3.6 Max Preview are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
Qwen3.6 Max Preview is the newest, released Apr 20, 2026. Claude Opus 4.5 came out Nov 24, 2025; GPT-5 Pro came out Oct 6, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: GPT-5 Pro Sep 30, 2024, Claude Opus 4.5 May 2025, Qwen3.6 Max Preview Apr 2025.
How do you decide the winner?
Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.
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