Claude Haiku 4.5 vs Qwen3 Max vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct comes out ahead, 53 to 48 and 31 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
AnthropicClaude Haiku 4.5
48/100- ECI142.4
- Price$1.00 / $5.00
- Context200K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 Max
31/100- ECI142.4
- Price$1.20 / $6.00
- Context262K
- Our pickAlibaba (Qwen)
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
53/100- ECI—
- Price$0.30 / $1.55
- Context131K
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is our pick
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 53/100 against Claude Haiku 4.5 (48) and Qwen3 Max (31). It leads on price. Claude Haiku 4.5 wins 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 VL 235B A22B InstructQwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct $0.613 · 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 VL 235B A22B Instruct 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsClaude Haiku 4.5Claude Haiku 4.5: Text, Images, PDFs · Qwen3 Max: Text · Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct: Text, Images
- Self-hostingQwen3 VL 235B A22B InstructPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Claude Haiku 4.5 | Qwen3 Max | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 36 | 32 | 60 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 80 | 25 | 60 |
| Context window | 20% | 32 | 37 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 48/100 | 31/100 | 53/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Claude Haiku 4.5Anthropic | Qwen3 MaxAlibaba (Qwen) | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B InstructAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 142.4 (best) | 142.4 | — |
| ECI rank | #90 of 148 (best) | #91 of 148 | — |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 71.2% | 72.6% (best) | — |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | — | 19.0% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 66.7% | 73.3% (best) | — |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 13.2% | 48.8% (best) | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $1.00 | $1.20 | $0.30 (best) |
| Output | $5.00 | $6.00 | $1.55 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.10 | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $2.00 | $2.40 | $0.613 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Anthropic API | Official Alibaba API | Median of 12 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 200,000 tokens | 262,144 tokens (best) | 131,072 tokens |
| Max output | 64,000 tokens | 65,536 tokens (best) | 32,768 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | No | Yes |
| PDFs | Yes | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | No | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | No | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Open |
| API model ID | claude-haiku-4-5 | qwen3-max | — |
| API providers | 34 (best) | 16 | 12 |
| Released | Oct 15, 2025 | Sep 23, 2025 | Sep 23, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Feb 28, 2025 | Apr 2025 | Mar 31, 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
- Qwen3 Max$24.00
- Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct$6.10
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Claude Haiku 4.5, Qwen3 Max or Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct?
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 53/100 against Claude Haiku 4.5 (48) and Qwen3 Max (31). It leads on price. Claude Haiku 4.5 wins 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 VL 235B A22B Instruct?
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is cheaper at $0.30 input / $1.55 output per million tokens (median across 12 API providers). 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 $0.613 per million tokens for Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct versus $2.00 for Claude Haiku 4.5 (3.3× as much) and $2.40 for Qwen3 Max (3.9× 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 VL 235B A22B Instruct 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 VL 235B A22B Instruct 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 VL 235B A22B Instruct. Maximum output per response: Claude Haiku 4.5 up to 64,000, Qwen3 Max up to 65,536, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct 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 VL 235B A22B Instruct accepts text and images. Claude Haiku 4.5 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct 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 VL 235B A22B Instruct came out Sep 23, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Haiku 4.5 Feb 28, 2025, Qwen3 Max Apr 2025, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct Mar 31, 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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