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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Claude Opus 4.1 vs Qwen3 Max vs o3-pro

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. Anthropic

    Claude Opus 4.1

    Released Aug 5, 2025

    49/100
    • ECI144.1
    • Price$15.00 / $75.00
    • Context200K
  2. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 Max

    Released Sep 23, 2025

    50/100
    • ECI142.4
    • Price$1.20 / $6.00
    • Context262K
  3. OpenAI

    o3-pro

    Released Jun 10, 2025

    51/100
    • ECI147.4
    • Price$20.00 / $80.00
    • Context200K
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 · Claude Opus 4.1 200,000 · o3-pro 200,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsClaude Opus 4.1Claude Opus 4.1: Text, Images, PDFs · Qwen3 Max: Text · o3-pro: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightClaude Opus 4.1Qwen3 Maxo3-pro
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%716875
Price25%0320
Inputs & features15%702570
Context window10%323732
Overall100%49/10050/10051/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Claude Opus 4.1 vs Qwen3 Max vs o3-pro specifications side by side
SpecificationClaude Opus 4.1AnthropicQwen3 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)o3-proOpenAI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)144.1142.4147.4 (best)
ECI rank#81 of 148#91 of 148#60 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions77.3% (best)72.6%—
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics12.6%19.0% (best)—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics68.9%73.3% (best)—
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues73.4%——
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—48.8%—
Price per million tokens
Input$15.00$1.20 (best)$20.00
Output$75.00$6.00 (best)$80.00
Cached input———
Blended (3:1)$30.00$2.40 (best)$35.00
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 14 providersOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial OpenAI API
Limits
Context window200,000 tokens262,144 tokens (best)200,000 tokens
Max output32,000 tokens65,536 tokens100,000 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesNoYes
PDFsYesNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningYesNoYeslow · medium · high
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietaryProprietary
API model ID—qwen3-maxo3-pro
API providers1416 (best)6
ReleasedAug 5, 2025Sep 23, 2025Jun 10, 2025
Knowledge cutoffMar 31, 2025Apr 2025May 2024
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 Opus 4.1$300.00
  • Qwen3 Max$24.00
  • o3-pro$360.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

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

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, Claude Opus 4.1, Qwen3 Max or o3-pro?

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 Qwen3 Max and o3-pro 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 Claude Opus 4.1 and 200,000 for o3-pro. Maximum output per response: Claude Opus 4.1 up to 32,000, Qwen3 Max up to 65,536, o3-pro up to 100,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

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

Are any of these open source?

No. Claude Opus 4.1, Qwen3 Max and o3-pro 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: Claude Opus 4.1 Mar 31, 2025, Qwen3 Max Apr 2025, o3-pro May 2024.

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.