o3-pro vs Qwen3 Max vs Claude Opus 4.1
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.
OpenAIo3-pro
51/100- ECI147.4
- Price$20.00 / $80.00
- Context200K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 Max
50/100- ECI142.4
- Price$1.20 / $6.00
- Context262K
AnthropicClaude Opus 4.1
49/100- ECI144.1
- Price$15.00 / $75.00
- Context200K
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 · Qwen3 Max: Text · Claude Opus 4.1: Text, Images, PDFs
- Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | o3-pro | Qwen3 Max | Claude Opus 4.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 75 | 68 | 71 |
| Price | 25% | 0 | 32 | 0 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 70 | 25 | 70 |
| Context window | 10% | 32 | 37 | 32 |
| Overall | 100% | 51/100 | 50/100 | 49/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | o3-proOpenAI | Qwen3 MaxAlibaba (Qwen) | Claude Opus 4.1Anthropic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 147.4 (best) | 142.4 | 144.1 |
| ECI rank | #60 of 148 (best) | #91 of 148 | #81 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | — | 72.6% | 77.3% (best) |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | — | 19.0% (best) | 12.6% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | — | 73.3% (best) | 68.9% |
| SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues | — | — | 73.4% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | — | 48.8% | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $20.00 | $1.20 (best) | $15.00 |
| Output | $80.00 | $6.00 (best) | $75.00 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $35.00 | $2.40 (best) | $30.00 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official OpenAI API | Official Alibaba API | Median of 14 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 200,000 tokens | 262,144 tokens (best) | 200,000 tokens |
| Max output | 100,000 tokens (best) | 65,536 tokens | 32,000 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | No | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | Yes |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yeslow · medium · high | No | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | o3-pro | qwen3-max | — |
| API providers | 6 | 16 (best) | 14 |
| Released | Jun 10, 2025 | Sep 23, 2025 | Aug 5, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | May 2024 | 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.
- o3-pro$360.00
- Qwen3 Max$24.00
- Claude Opus 4.1$300.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: o3-pro, Qwen3 Max or Claude Opus 4.1?
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, Qwen3 Max or Claude Opus 4.1?
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, Qwen3 Max up to 65,536, Claude Opus 4.1 up to 32,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
o3-pro accepts text and images; Qwen3 Max accepts text; Claude Opus 4.1 accepts text, images and PDFs. Claude Opus 4.1 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
No. o3-pro, Qwen3 Max and Claude Opus 4.1 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, Qwen3 Max Apr 2025, Claude Opus 4.1 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.
