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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Claude Haiku 4.5 vs Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)

Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) comes out ahead, 72 to 47 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Anthropic

    Claude Haiku 4.5

    Released Oct 15, 2025

    47/100
    • ECI142.2
    • Price$1.00 / $5.00
    • Context200K
    Full specs Remove Claude Haiku 4.5
  2. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)

    Released Oct 15, 2025

    72/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.022 / $0.215
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) is our pick

Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) is the better all-round choice, scoring 72/100 against Claude Haiku 4.5 (47). It leads on price and context window. 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 Flash (Alibaba Cloud)Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) $0.07 · Claude Haiku 4.5 $2.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) 262,144 · Claude Haiku 4.5 200,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsClaude Haiku 4.5Claude Haiku 4.5: Text, Images, PDFs · Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud): Text, Images
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightClaude Haiku 4.5Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)
Price50%34100
Inputs & features30%8050
Context window20%3237
Overall100%47/10072/100

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 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) specifications side by side
SpecificationClaude Haiku 4.5AnthropicQwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)Alibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)142.2—
ECI rank#102 of 165—
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions71.2%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics66.7%—
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions13.2%—
Price per million tokens
Input$1.00$0.022 (best)
Output$5.00$0.215 (best)
Cached input$0.10—
Blended (3:1)$2.00$0.07 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Anthropic APIMedian of 1 providers
Limits
Context window200,000 tokens262,144 tokens (best)
Max output64,000 tokens (best)32,768 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsYesNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningYesNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
API model IDclaude-haiku-4-5—
API providers48 (best)1
ReleasedOct 15, 2025Oct 15, 2025
Knowledge cutoffFeb 28, 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 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)$0.65
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Claude Haiku 4.5 or Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)?

Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) is the better all-round choice, scoring 72/100 against Claude Haiku 4.5 (47). It leads on price and context window. 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 or Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud)?

Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) is cheaper at $0.022 input / $0.215 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). Claude Haiku 4.5 costs $1.00 input / $5.00 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.07 per million tokens for Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) versus $2.00 for Claude Haiku 4.5 (28× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. Claude Haiku 4.5 has an ECI of 142.2 and Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Claude Haiku 4.5 and Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 200,000 for Claude Haiku 4.5. Maximum output per response: Claude Haiku 4.5 up to 64,000, Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) up to 32,768 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Claude Haiku 4.5 accepts text, images and PDFs; Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) 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 and Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.

Which is newer?

Claude Haiku 4.5 is the newest, released Oct 15, 2025. Qwen3 VL Flash (Alibaba Cloud) came out Oct 15, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Haiku 4.5 Feb 28, 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 Nov 2, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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