Claude Haiku 4.5 vs Claude Opus 4.1 vs Qwen3 Max
Claude Haiku 4.5 comes out ahead, 58 to 50 and 49 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
- Our pick
AnthropicClaude Haiku 4.5
58/100- ECI142.4
- Price$1.00 / $5.00
- Context200K
- Anthropic
Claude Opus 4.1
49/100- ECI144.1
- Price$15.00 / $75.00
- Context200K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 Max
50/100- ECI142.4
- Price$1.20 / $6.00
- Context262K
Claude Haiku 4.5 is our pick
Claude Haiku 4.5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 58/100 against Qwen3 Max (50) and Claude Opus 4.1 (49). It leads on price and inputs & features. Claude Opus 4.1 wins on capability. Qwen3 Max wins on context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityClaude Opus 4.1Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Opus 4.1 144.1 · Claude Haiku 4.5 142.4 · Qwen3 Max 142.4
- Lowest priceClaude Haiku 4.5Claude Haiku 4.5 $2.00 · Qwen3 Max $2.40 · Claude Opus 4.1 $30.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen3 MaxQwen3 Max 262,144 · Claude Haiku 4.5 200,000 · Claude Opus 4.1 200,000 tokens
- Widest inputsClaude Haiku 4.5 and Claude Opus 4.1Claude Haiku 4.5: Text, Images, PDFs · Claude Opus 4.1: Text, Images, PDFs · Qwen3 Max: Text
- Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | Claude Haiku 4.5 | Claude Opus 4.1 | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 69 | 71 | 68 |
| Price | 25% | 36 | 0 | 32 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 80 | 70 | 25 |
| Context window | 10% | 32 | 32 | 37 |
| Overall | 100% | 58/100 | 49/100 | 50/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Claude Haiku 4.5Anthropic | Claude Opus 4.1Anthropic | Qwen3 MaxAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 142.4 | 144.1 (best) | 142.4 |
| ECI rank | #90 of 148 | #81 of 148 (best) | #91 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 71.2% | 77.3% (best) | 72.6% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | — | 12.6% | 19.0% (best) |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 66.7% | 68.9% | 73.3% (best) |
| SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues | — | 73.4% | — |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 13.2% | — | 48.8% (best) |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $1.00 (best) | $15.00 | $1.20 |
| Output | $5.00 (best) | $75.00 | $6.00 |
| Cached input | $0.10 | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $2.00 (best) | $30.00 | $2.40 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Anthropic API | Median of 14 providers | Official Alibaba API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 200,000 tokens | 200,000 tokens | 262,144 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 64,000 tokens | 32,000 tokens | 65,536 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | No |
| PDFs | Yes | Yes | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | claude-haiku-4-5 | — | qwen3-max |
| API providers | 34 (best) | 14 | 16 |
| Released | Oct 15, 2025 | Aug 5, 2025 | Sep 23, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Feb 28, 2025 | Mar 31, 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.
- Claude Haiku 4.5$20.00
- Claude Opus 4.1$300.00
- Qwen3 Max$24.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Claude Haiku 4.5, Claude Opus 4.1 or Qwen3 Max?
Claude Haiku 4.5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 58/100 against Qwen3 Max (50) and Claude Opus 4.1 (49). It leads on price and inputs & features. Claude Opus 4.1 wins on capability. Qwen3 Max wins on context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Claude Haiku 4.5, Claude Opus 4.1 or Qwen3 Max?
Claude Haiku 4.5 is cheaper at $1.00 input / $5.00 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price). Qwen3 Max costs $1.20 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price); Claude Opus 4.1 costs $15.00 input / $75.00 output per million tokens (median across 14 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $2.00 per million tokens for Claude Haiku 4.5 versus $2.40 for Qwen3 Max (1.2× as much) and $30.00 for Claude Opus 4.1 (15× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Claude Opus 4.1 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Opus 4.1 144.1 (#81 of 148), Claude Haiku 4.5 142.4 (#90 of 148) and Qwen3 Max 142.4 (#91 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (141.6–146.0 vs 139.5–144.3), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Claude Opus 4.1 77.3%, Qwen3 Max 72.6%, Claude Haiku 4.5 71.2%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3 Max 73.3%, Claude Opus 4.1 68.9%, Claude Haiku 4.5 66.7%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Claude Haiku 4.5 and Qwen3 Max yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Opus 4.1 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?
Qwen3 Max has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 200,000 for Claude Haiku 4.5 and 200,000 for Claude Opus 4.1. Maximum output per response: Claude Haiku 4.5 up to 64,000, Claude Opus 4.1 up to 32,000, Qwen3 Max up to 65,536 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Claude Haiku 4.5 accepts text, images and PDFs; Claude Opus 4.1 accepts text, images and PDFs; Qwen3 Max accepts text. Claude Haiku 4.5 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
No. Claude Haiku 4.5, Claude Opus 4.1 and Qwen3 Max are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
Claude Haiku 4.5 is the newest, released Oct 15, 2025. Qwen3 Max came out Sep 23, 2025; Claude Opus 4.1 came out Aug 5, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Haiku 4.5 Feb 28, 2025, Claude Opus 4.1 Mar 31, 2025, 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.
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