Claude Haiku 4.5 vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking vs Qwen3 Max
Too close to call on our weighted score (Claude Haiku 4.5 48, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking 48, Qwen3 Max 31). The right pick depends on what you value most.
AnthropicClaude Haiku 4.5
48/100- ECI142.4
- Price$1.00 / $5.00
- Context200K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking
48/100- ECI—
- Price$0.40 / $4.00
- Context131K
- Alibaba (Qwen)
Qwen3 Max
31/100- ECI142.4
- Price$1.20 / $6.00
- Context262K
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Claude Haiku 4.5 48/100, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking 48/100, Qwen3 Max 31/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking on price and Qwen3 Max for long inputs. 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 ThinkingQwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking $1.30 · 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 Thinking 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsClaude Haiku 4.5Claude Haiku 4.5: Text, Images, PDFs · Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking: Text, Images · Qwen3 Max: Text
- Self-hostingQwen3 VL 235B A22B ThinkingPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Claude Haiku 4.5 | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 36 | 44 | 32 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 80 | 70 | 25 |
| Context window | 20% | 32 | 24 | 37 |
| Overall | 100% | 48/100 | 48/100 | 31/100 |
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 VL 235B A22B ThinkingAlibaba (Qwen) | Qwen3 MaxAlibaba (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 | $0.40 (best) | $1.20 |
| Output | $5.00 | $4.00 (best) | $6.00 |
| Cached input | $0.10 | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $2.00 | $1.30 (best) | $2.40 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Anthropic API | Median of 9 providers | Official Alibaba API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 200,000 tokens | 131,072 tokens | 262,144 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 64,000 tokens | 32,768 tokens | 65,536 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | No |
| PDFs | Yes | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | Yes | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Open | Proprietary |
| API model ID | claude-haiku-4-5 | — | qwen3-max |
| API providers | 34 (best) | 9 | 16 |
| Released | Oct 15, 2025 | Sep 23, 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
- Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking$12.00
- Qwen3 Max$24.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Claude Haiku 4.5, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking or Qwen3 Max?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Claude Haiku 4.5 48/100, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking 48/100, Qwen3 Max 31/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking on price and Qwen3 Max for long inputs. 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 VL 235B A22B Thinking or Qwen3 Max?
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking is cheaper at $0.40 input / $4.00 output per million tokens (median across 9 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 $1.30 per million tokens for Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking versus $2.00 for Claude Haiku 4.5 (1.5× as much) and $2.40 for Qwen3 Max (1.8× 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 VL 235B A22B Thinking has not been scored yet and Qwen3 Max has an ECI of 142.4.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Claude Haiku 4.5, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking and Qwen3 Max 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 Thinking. Maximum output per response: Claude Haiku 4.5 up to 64,000, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking up to 32,768, Qwen3 Max up to 65,536 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Claude Haiku 4.5 accepts text, images and PDFs; Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking accepts text and images; Qwen3 Max accepts text. Claude Haiku 4.5 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B 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 VL 235B A22B Thinking came out Sep 23, 2025; Qwen3 Max came out Sep 23, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Haiku 4.5 Feb 28, 2025, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Thinking 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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