GPT-6 Astra vs Claude Opus 5.5 vs Qwen3.8 Max
Too close to call on our weighted score (Claude Opus 5.5 70, Qwen3.8 Max 69, GPT-6 Astra 68). The right pick depends on what you value most.
OpenAIGPT-6 Astra
68/100- ECI166.5
- Price$10.00 / $50.00
- Context1.05M
AnthropicClaude Opus 5.5
70/100- ECI167.4
- Price$4.00 / $20.00
- Context1M
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.8 Max
69/100- ECI156.6
- Price$2.00 / $6.00
- Context1M
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Claude Opus 5.5 70/100, Qwen3.8 Max 69/100, GPT-6 Astra 68/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Claude Opus 5.5 for raw capability, Qwen3.8 Max on price and GPT-6 Astra for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityClaude Opus 5.5Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Opus 5.5 167.4 · GPT-6 Astra 166.5 · Qwen3.8 Max 156.6
- Lowest priceQwen3.8 MaxQwen3.8 Max $3.00 · Claude Opus 5.5 $8.00 · GPT-6 Astra $20.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGPT-6 AstraGPT-6 Astra 1,050,000 · Claude Opus 5.5 1,000,000 · Qwen3.8 Max 1,000,000 tokens
- Widest inputsQwen3.8 MaxGPT-6 Astra: Text, Images, PDFs · Claude Opus 5.5: Text, Images, PDFs · Qwen3.8 Max: Text, Images, PDFs, Video
- Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | GPT-6 Astra | Claude Opus 5.5 | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 99 | 100 | 86 |
| Price | 25% | 0 | 7 | 27 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 80 | 80 | 90 |
| Context window | 10% | 61 | 60 | 60 |
| Overall | 100% | 68/100 | 70/100 | 69/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | GPT-6 AstraOpenAI | Claude Opus 5.5Anthropic | Qwen3.8 MaxAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 166.5 | 167.4 (best) | 156.6 |
| ECI rank | #2 of 148 | #1 of 148 (best) | #20 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 95.8% (best) | 90.6% | 92.7% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 93.7% (best) | 91.2% | 74.7% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 100% (best) | 100% (best) | 99.4% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 75.6% (best) | 72.2% | 45.8% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $10.00 | $4.00 | $2.00 (best) |
| Output | $50.00 | $20.00 | $6.00 (best) |
| Cached input | $1.00 | $0.20 (best) | $0.25 |
| Blended (3:1) | $20.00 | $8.00 | $3.00 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Over 272K: $20.00 / $75.00 | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official OpenAI API | Official Anthropic API | Official Alibaba API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,050,000 tokens (best) | 1,000,000 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Max output | 128,000 tokens | 128,000 tokens | 131,072 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max | Yeslow · medium · xhigh |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | gpt-6-astra | claude-opus-5-5 | qwen3.8-max |
| API providers | 26 | 28 (best) | 25 |
| Released | Sep 4, 2026 | Sep 22, 2026 | Aug 3, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Apr 30, 2026 | Jun 2026 | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- GPT-6 Astra$200.00
- Claude Opus 5.5$80.00
- Qwen3.8 Max$32.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: GPT-6 Astra, Claude Opus 5.5 or Qwen3.8 Max?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Claude Opus 5.5 70/100, Qwen3.8 Max 69/100, GPT-6 Astra 68/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Claude Opus 5.5 for raw capability, Qwen3.8 Max on price and GPT-6 Astra for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, GPT-6 Astra, Claude Opus 5.5 or Qwen3.8 Max?
Qwen3.8 Max is cheaper at $2.00 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Claude Opus 5.5 costs $4.00 input / $20.00 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price); GPT-6 Astra costs $10.00 input / $50.00 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $3.00 per million tokens for Qwen3.8 Max versus $8.00 for Claude Opus 5.5 (2.7× as much) and $20.00 for GPT-6 Astra (6.7× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Claude Opus 5.5 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Opus 5.5 167.4 (#1 of 148), GPT-6 Astra 166.5 (#2 of 148) and Qwen3.8 Max 156.6 (#20 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (164.0–172.0 vs 163.1–171.1), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — GPT-6 Astra 95.8%, Qwen3.8 Max 92.7%, Claude Opus 5.5 90.6%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — GPT-6 Astra 93.7%, Claude Opus 5.5 91.2%, Qwen3.8 Max 74.7%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — GPT-6 Astra 100%, Claude Opus 5.5 100%, Qwen3.8 Max 99.4%; SimpleQA Verified — GPT-6 Astra 75.6%, Claude Opus 5.5 72.2%, Qwen3.8 Max 45.8%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for GPT-6 Astra, Claude Opus 5.5 and Qwen3.8 Max yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Opus 5.5 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-6 Astra has the largest context window at 1,050,000 tokens, against 1,000,000 for Claude Opus 5.5 and 1,000,000 for Qwen3.8 Max. Maximum output per response: GPT-6 Astra up to 128,000, Claude Opus 5.5 up to 128,000, Qwen3.8 Max up to 131,072 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
GPT-6 Astra accepts text, images and PDFs; Claude Opus 5.5 accepts text, images and PDFs; Qwen3.8 Max accepts text, images, PDFs and video. Qwen3.8 Max handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
No. GPT-6 Astra, Claude Opus 5.5 and Qwen3.8 Max are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
Claude Opus 5.5 is the newest, released Sep 22, 2026. GPT-6 Astra came out Sep 4, 2026; Qwen3.8 Max came out Aug 3, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: GPT-6 Astra Apr 30, 2026, Claude Opus 5.5 Jun 2026.
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.
