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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Claude Opus 5.5 vs Qwen3.8 Max

Too close to call on our weighted score (Claude Opus 5.5 70, Qwen3.8 Max 69). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Anthropic

    Claude Opus 5.5

    Released Sep 22, 2026

    70/100
    • ECI167.4
    • Price$4.00 / $20.00
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Claude Opus 5.5

  2. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.8 Max

    Released Aug 3, 2026

    69/100
    • ECI156.6
    • Price$2.00 / $6.00
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.8 Max

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01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Claude Opus 5.5 70/100, Qwen3.8 Max 69/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Claude Opus 5.5 for raw capability and Qwen3.8 Max on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityClaude Opus 5.5Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Opus 5.5 167.4 · Qwen3.8 Max 156.6
  • Lowest priceQwen3.8 MaxQwen3.8 Max $3.00 · Claude Opus 5.5 $8.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextAbout the sameClaude Opus 5.5 1,000,000 · Qwen3.8 Max 1,000,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.8 MaxClaude Opus 5.5: Text, Images, PDFs · Qwen3.8 Max: Text, Images, PDFs, Video
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightClaude Opus 5.5Qwen3.8 Max
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%10086
Price25%727
Inputs & features15%8090
Context window10%6060
Overall100%70/10069/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Claude Opus 5.5 vs Qwen3.8 Max specifications side by side
SpecificationClaude Opus 5.5AnthropicQwen3.8 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)167.4 (best)156.6
ECI rank#1 of 148 (best)#20 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions90.6%92.7% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics91.2% (best)74.7%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics100% (best)99.4%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions72.2% (best)45.8%
Price per million tokens
Input$4.00$2.00 (best)
Output$20.00$6.00 (best)
Cached input$0.20 (best)$0.25
Blended (3:1)$8.00$3.00 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Anthropic APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens1,000,000 tokens
Max output128,000 tokens131,072 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsYesYes
AudioNoNo
VideoNoYes
ReasoningYeslow · medium · high · xhigh · maxYeslow · medium · xhigh
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
API model IDclaude-opus-5-5qwen3.8-max
API providers28 (best)25
ReleasedSep 22, 2026Aug 3, 2026
Knowledge cutoffJun 2026—
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 5.5$80.00
  • Qwen3.8 Max$32.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Claude Opus 5.5 or Qwen3.8 Max?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Claude Opus 5.5 70/100, Qwen3.8 Max 69/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Claude Opus 5.5 for raw capability and Qwen3.8 Max on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 5.5 or Qwen3.8 Max?

Qwen3.8 Max is cheaper at $2.00 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Claude Opus 5.5 costs $4.00 input / $20.00 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $3.00 per million tokens for Qwen3.8 Max versus $8.00 for Claude Opus 5.5 (2.7× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Claude Opus 5.5 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Opus 5.5 167.4 (#1 of 148) and Qwen3.8 Max 156.6 (#20 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (164.0–172.0 vs 154.5–158.8), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3.8 Max 92.7%, Claude Opus 5.5 90.6%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Claude Opus 5.5 91.2%, Qwen3.8 Max 74.7%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Claude Opus 5.5 100%, Qwen3.8 Max 99.4%; SimpleQA Verified — Claude Opus 5.5 72.2%, Qwen3.8 Max 45.8%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Claude Opus 5.5 and Qwen3.8 Max yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Opus 5.5 leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Claude Opus 5.5 and Qwen3.8 Max share the same 1,000,000-token context window. Maximum output per response: Claude Opus 5.5 up to 128,000, Qwen3.8 Max up to 131,072 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Claude Opus 5.5 accepts text, images and PDFs; Qwen3.8 Max accepts text, images, PDFs and video. Qwen3.8 Max handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

No. Claude Opus 5.5 and Qwen3.8 Max are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.

Which is newer?

Claude Opus 5.5 is the newest, released Sep 22, 2026. Qwen3.8 Max came out Aug 3, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Opus 5.5 Jun 2026.

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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