ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Claude Haiku 3.5 vs Qwen3 Max

Qwen3 Max comes out ahead, 55 to 49 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Anthropic

    Claude Haiku 3.5

    Released Oct 22, 2024

    49/100
    • ECI127.2
    • Price—
    • Context200K
    Full specs Remove Claude Haiku 3.5
  2. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 Max

    Released Sep 23, 2025

    55/100
    • ECI142.4
    • Price$1.20 / $6.00
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 Max

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Qwen3 Max is our pick

Qwen3 Max is the better all-round choice, scoring 55/100 against Claude Haiku 3.5 (49). It leads on capability and context window. Claude Haiku 3.5 wins on inputs & features. The score weighs capability 67%, inputs & features 20%, context window 13%.

  • CapabilityQwen3 MaxCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 Max 142.4 · Claude Haiku 3.5 127.2
  • Lowest priceQwen3 MaxQwen3 Max $2.40 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend) · Claude Haiku 3.5 unpriced
  • Longest contextQwen3 MaxQwen3 Max 262,144 · Claude Haiku 3.5 200,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsClaude Haiku 3.5Claude Haiku 3.5: Text, Images, PDFs · Qwen3 Max: Text
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightClaude Haiku 3.5Qwen3 Max
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)67%4968
Inputs & features20%6025
Context window13%3237
Overall100%49/10055/100

Left out because at least one model lacks the data: price. The remaining weights were rescaled.

02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Claude Haiku 3.5 vs Qwen3 Max specifications side by side
SpecificationClaude Haiku 3.5AnthropicQwen3 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)127.2142.4 (best)
ECI rank#134 of 148#91 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions38.1%72.6% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—19.0%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics4.3%73.3% (best)
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—48.8%
Price per million tokens
Input—$1.20
Output—$6.00
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)—$2.40
Long-context rate—Same rate
Price source—Official Alibaba API
Limits
Context window200,000 tokens262,144 tokens (best)
Max output8,192 tokens65,536 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesNo
PDFsYesNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
API model ID—qwen3-max
API providers—16
ReleasedOct 22, 2024Sep 23, 2025
Knowledge cutoffJul 31, 2024Apr 2025
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • Claude Haiku 3.5—
  • Qwen3 Max$24.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Claude Haiku 3.5 or Qwen3 Max?

Qwen3 Max is the better all-round choice, scoring 55/100 against Claude Haiku 3.5 (49). It leads on capability and context window. Claude Haiku 3.5 wins on inputs & features. The score weighs capability 67%, inputs & features 20%, context window 13%.

Which is cheaper, Claude Haiku 3.5 or Qwen3 Max?

Qwen3 Max is cheaper at $1.20 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). . At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $2.40 per million tokens for Qwen3 Max versus . Claude Haiku 3.5 has no published per-token price.

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3 Max scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 Max 142.4 (#91 of 148) and Claude Haiku 3.5 127.2 (#134 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (140.0–144.6 vs 120.7–129.7), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3 Max 72.6%, Claude Haiku 3.5 38.1%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3 Max 73.3%, Claude Haiku 3.5 4.3%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Claude Haiku 3.5 and Qwen3 Max yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3 Max leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3 Max has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 200,000 for Claude Haiku 3.5. Maximum output per response: Claude Haiku 3.5 up to 8,192, Qwen3 Max up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Claude Haiku 3.5 accepts text, images and PDFs; Qwen3 Max accepts text. Claude Haiku 3.5 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

No. Claude Haiku 3.5 and Qwen3 Max are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.

Which is newer?

Qwen3 Max is the newest, released Sep 23, 2025. Claude Haiku 3.5 came out Oct 22, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Haiku 3.5 Jul 31, 2024, Qwen3 Max 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.

05 — Keep comparing

Related comparisons