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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

o3-pro vs Claude Opus 4.1 vs Qwen3 Max

Too close to call on our weighted score (o3-pro 51, Qwen3 Max 50, Claude Opus 4.1 49). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. OpenAI

    o3-pro

    Released Jun 10, 2025

    51/100
    • ECI147.4
    • Price$20.00 / $80.00
    • Context200K
    Full specs Remove o3-pro

  2. Anthropic

    Claude Opus 4.1

    Released Aug 5, 2025

    49/100
    • ECI144.1
    • Price$15.00 / $75.00
    • Context200K
    Full specs Remove Claude Opus 4.1

  3. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 Max

    Released Sep 23, 2025

    50/100
    • ECI142.4
    • Price$1.20 / $6.00
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 Max
01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (o3-pro 51/100, Qwen3 Max 50/100, Claude Opus 4.1 49/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: o3-pro for raw capability, Qwen3 Max on price and Qwen3 Max for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • Capabilityo3-proCapabilities Index (ECI): o3-pro 147.4 · Claude Opus 4.1 144.1 · Qwen3 Max 142.4
  • Lowest priceQwen3 MaxQwen3 Max $2.40 · Claude Opus 4.1 $30.00 · o3-pro $35.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3 MaxQwen3 Max 262,144 · o3-pro 200,000 · Claude Opus 4.1 200,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsClaude Opus 4.1o3-pro: Text, Images · Claude Opus 4.1: Text, Images, PDFs · Qwen3 Max: Text
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeighto3-proClaude Opus 4.1Qwen3 Max
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%757168
Price25%0032
Inputs & features15%707025
Context window10%323237
Overall100%51/10049/10050/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

o3-pro vs Claude Opus 4.1 vs Qwen3 Max specifications side by side
Specificationo3-proOpenAIClaude Opus 4.1AnthropicQwen3 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)147.4 (best)144.1142.4
ECI rank#60 of 148 (best)#81 of 148#91 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions—77.3% (best)72.6%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—12.6%19.0% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—68.9%73.3% (best)
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues—73.4%—
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions——48.8%
Price per million tokens
Input$20.00$15.00$1.20 (best)
Output$80.00$75.00$6.00 (best)
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$35.00$30.00$2.40 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial OpenAI APIMedian of 14 providersOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window200,000 tokens200,000 tokens262,144 tokens (best)
Max output100,000 tokens (best)32,000 tokens65,536 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesNo
PDFsNoYesNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningYeslow · medium · highYesNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietaryProprietary
API model IDo3-pro—qwen3-max
API providers61416 (best)
ReleasedJun 10, 2025Aug 5, 2025Sep 23, 2025
Knowledge cutoffMay 2024Mar 31, 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.

  • o3-pro$360.00
  • Claude Opus 4.1$300.00
  • Qwen3 Max$24.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: o3-pro, Claude Opus 4.1 or Qwen3 Max?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (o3-pro 51/100, Qwen3 Max 50/100, Claude Opus 4.1 49/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: o3-pro for raw capability, Qwen3 Max on price and Qwen3 Max for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, o3-pro, Claude Opus 4.1 or Qwen3 Max?

Qwen3 Max is cheaper at $1.20 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Claude Opus 4.1 costs $15.00 input / $75.00 output per million tokens (median across 14 API providers); o3-pro costs $20.00 input / $80.00 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $2.40 per million tokens for Qwen3 Max versus $30.00 for Claude Opus 4.1 (13× as much) and $35.00 for o3-pro (15× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

o3-pro scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): o3-pro 147.4 (#60 of 148), Claude Opus 4.1 144.1 (#81 of 148) and Qwen3 Max 142.4 (#91 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (145.8–149.7 vs 141.6–146.0), so treat the gap as small.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for o3-pro and Qwen3 Max yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, o3-pro leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. 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 o3-pro and 200,000 for Claude Opus 4.1. Maximum output per response: o3-pro up to 100,000, Claude Opus 4.1 up to 32,000, Qwen3 Max up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

o3-pro accepts text and images; Claude Opus 4.1 accepts text, images and PDFs; Qwen3 Max accepts text. Claude Opus 4.1 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

No. o3-pro, Claude Opus 4.1 and Qwen3 Max are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.

Which is newer?

Qwen3 Max is the newest, released Sep 23, 2025. Claude Opus 4.1 came out Aug 5, 2025; o3-pro came out Jun 10, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: o3-pro May 2024, Claude Opus 4.1 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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