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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Claude Haiku 4.5 vs Qwen3 Max vs Qwen3-VL Plus

Qwen3-VL Plus comes out ahead, 56 to 48 and 31 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. 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. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3-VL Plus

    Released Sep 23, 2025

    56/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.20 / $1.60
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3-VL Plus
01 — Verdict

Qwen3-VL Plus is our pick

Qwen3-VL Plus is the better all-round choice, scoring 56/100 against Claude Haiku 4.5 (48) and Qwen3 Max (31). It leads on price. Claude Haiku 4.5 wins on inputs & features. 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 PlusQwen3-VL Plus $0.55 · Claude Haiku 4.5 $2.00 · Qwen3 Max $2.40 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3 Max and Qwen3-VL PlusQwen3 Max 262,144 · Qwen3-VL Plus 262,144 · Claude Haiku 4.5 200,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsClaude Haiku 4.5Claude Haiku 4.5: Text, Images, PDFs · Qwen3 Max: Text · Qwen3-VL Plus: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightClaude Haiku 4.5Qwen3 MaxQwen3-VL Plus
Price50%363262
Inputs & features30%802560
Context window20%323737
Overall100%48/10031/10056/100

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-VL Plus specifications side by side
SpecificationClaude Haiku 4.5AnthropicQwen3 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)Qwen3-VL PlusAlibaba (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$0.20 (best)
Output$5.00$6.00$1.60 (best)
Cached input$0.10——
Blended (3:1)$2.00$2.40$0.55 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Anthropic APIOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window200,000 tokens262,144 tokens (best)262,144 tokens (best)
Max output64,000 tokens65,536 tokens (best)32,768 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesNoYes
PDFsYesNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningYesNoYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietaryProprietary
API model IDclaude-haiku-4-5qwen3-maxqwen3-vl-plus
API providers34 (best)166
ReleasedOct 15, 2025Sep 23, 2025Sep 23, 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-VL Plus$5.20
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Claude Haiku 4.5, Qwen3 Max or Qwen3-VL Plus?

Qwen3-VL Plus is the better all-round choice, scoring 56/100 against Claude Haiku 4.5 (48) and Qwen3 Max (31). It leads on price. Claude Haiku 4.5 wins on inputs & features. 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 Plus?

Qwen3-VL Plus is cheaper at $0.20 input / $1.60 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 $0.55 per million tokens for Qwen3-VL Plus versus $2.00 for Claude Haiku 4.5 (3.6× as much) and $2.40 for Qwen3 Max (4.4× 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 Plus 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 Plus 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 and Qwen3-VL Plus have the largest context windows (262,144 and 262,144 tokens), against 200,000 for Claude Haiku 4.5. Maximum output per response: Claude Haiku 4.5 up to 64,000, Qwen3 Max up to 65,536, Qwen3-VL Plus 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 Plus accepts text and images. Claude Haiku 4.5 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

No. Claude Haiku 4.5, Qwen3 Max and Qwen3-VL Plus 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; Qwen3-VL Plus came out Sep 23, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Haiku 4.5 Feb 28, 2025, Qwen3 Max Apr 2025, Qwen3-VL Plus 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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