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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Claude Haiku 4.5 vs Qwen3 Max vs Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B (Thinking)

Claude Haiku 4.5 comes out ahead, 48 to 34 and 31 on our weighted score, though Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B (Thinking) is 6% cheaper per token.

  1. Our pick

    Anthropic

    Claude Haiku 4.5

    Released Oct 15, 2025

    48/100
    • ECI142.4
    • Price$1.00 / $5.00
    • Context200K
    Full specs Remove Claude Haiku 4.5

  2. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 Max

    Released Sep 23, 2025

    31/100
    • ECI142.4
    • Price$1.20 / $6.00
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 Max

  3. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B (Thinking)

    Released Sep 2025

    34/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.50 / $6.00
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B (Thinking)
01 — Verdict

Claude Haiku 4.5 is our pick

Claude Haiku 4.5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 48/100 against Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B (Thinking) (34) and Qwen3 Max (31). It leads on inputs & features. Qwen3 Max wins on context window. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.

  • CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
  • Lowest priceQwen3-Next 80B-A3B (Thinking)Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B (Thinking) $1.88 · Claude Haiku 4.5 $2.00 · Qwen3 Max $2.40 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3 MaxQwen3 Max 262,144 · Claude Haiku 4.5 200,000 · Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B (Thinking) 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsClaude Haiku 4.5Claude Haiku 4.5: Text, Images, PDFs · Qwen3 Max: Text · Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B (Thinking): Text
  • Self-hostingQwen3-Next 80B-A3B (Thinking)Publishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightClaude Haiku 4.5Qwen3 MaxQwen3-Next 80B-A3B (Thinking)
Price50%363237
Inputs & features30%802535
Context window20%323724
Overall100%48/10031/10034/100

Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. 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 4.5 vs Qwen3 Max vs Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B (Thinking) specifications side by side
SpecificationClaude Haiku 4.5AnthropicQwen3 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B (Thinking)Alibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)142.4 (best)142.4—
ECI rank#90 of 148 (best)#91 of 148—
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions71.2%72.6% (best)—
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—19.0%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics66.7%73.3% (best)—
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions13.2%48.8% (best)—
Price per million tokens
Input$1.00$1.20$0.50 (best)
Output$5.00 (best)$6.00$6.00
Cached input$0.10——
Blended (3:1)$2.00$2.40$1.88 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Anthropic APIOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window200,000 tokens262,144 tokens (best)131,072 tokens
Max output64,000 tokens65,536 tokens (best)32,768 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesNoNo
PDFsYesNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningYesNoYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietaryOpen
API model IDclaude-haiku-4-5qwen3-maxqwen3-next-80b-a3b-thinking
API providers34 (best)1610
ReleasedOct 15, 2025Sep 23, 2025Sep 2025
Knowledge cutoffFeb 28, 2025Apr 2025Apr 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 4.5$20.00
  • Qwen3 Max$24.00
  • Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B (Thinking)$17.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Claude Haiku 4.5, Qwen3 Max or Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B (Thinking)?

Claude Haiku 4.5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 48/100 against Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B (Thinking) (34) and Qwen3 Max (31). It leads on inputs & features. Qwen3 Max wins on context window. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.

Which is cheaper, Claude Haiku 4.5, Qwen3 Max or Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B (Thinking)?

Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B (Thinking) is cheaper at $0.50 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Claude Haiku 4.5 costs $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). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $1.88 per million tokens for Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B (Thinking) versus $2.00 for Claude Haiku 4.5 (1.1× as much) and $2.40 for Qwen3 Max (1.3× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Claude Haiku 4.5 has an ECI of 142.4, Qwen3 Max has an ECI of 142.4 and Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B (Thinking) has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Claude Haiku 4.5, Qwen3 Max and Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B (Thinking) yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. 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 131,072 for Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B (Thinking). Maximum output per response: Claude Haiku 4.5 up to 64,000, Qwen3 Max up to 65,536, Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B (Thinking) up to 32,768 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Claude Haiku 4.5 accepts text, images and PDFs; Qwen3 Max accepts text; Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B (Thinking) accepts text. Claude Haiku 4.5 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B (Thinking) publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Claude Haiku 4.5 and Qwen3 Max is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Claude Haiku 4.5 is the newest, released Oct 15, 2025. Qwen3 Max came out Sep 23, 2025; Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B (Thinking) came out Sep 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Haiku 4.5 Feb 28, 2025, Qwen3 Max Apr 2025, Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B (Thinking) 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

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