Qwen Plus vs Claude Haiku 3 vs Sonar
Claude Haiku 3 comes out ahead, 56 to 53 and 30 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen Plus
53/100- ECI—
- Price$0.40 / $1.20
- Context1M
- Our pick
AnthropicClaude Haiku 3
56/100- ECI118.4
- Price$0.25 / $1.25
- Context200K
PerplexitySonar
30/100- ECI—
- Price$1.00 / $1.00
- Context128K
Claude Haiku 3 is our pick
Claude Haiku 3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 56/100 against Qwen Plus (53) and Sonar (30). It leads on price and inputs & features. Qwen Plus wins on context window. 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 priceClaude Haiku 3Claude Haiku 3 $0.50 · Qwen Plus $0.60 · Sonar $1.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen PlusQwen Plus 1,000,000 · Claude Haiku 3 200,000 · Sonar 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsClaude Haiku 3Qwen Plus: Text · Claude Haiku 3: Text, Images, PDFs · Sonar: Text
- Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | Qwen Plus | Claude Haiku 3 | Sonar |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 60 | 64 | 50 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 35 | 60 | 0 |
| Context window | 20% | 60 | 32 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 53/100 | 56/100 | 30/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Qwen PlusAlibaba (Qwen) | Claude Haiku 3Anthropic | SonarPerplexity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | 118.4 | — |
| ECI rank | — | #143 of 148 | — |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | — | 36.3% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | — | 1.8% | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.40 | $0.25 (best) | $1.00 |
| Output | $1.20 | $1.25 | $1.00 (best) |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.60 | $0.50 (best) | $1.00 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Alibaba API | Median of 2 providers | Official Perplexity API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens (best) | 200,000 tokens | 128,000 tokens |
| Max output | 32,768 tokens (best) | 4,096 tokens | 4,096 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | Yes | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | No | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | No |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | qwen-plus | — | sonar |
| API providers | 9 (best) | 2 | 6 |
| Released | Jan 25, 2024 | Mar 13, 2024 | Jan 1, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Apr 2024 | Aug 31, 2023 | Sep 1, 2025 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Qwen Plus$6.40
- Claude Haiku 3$5.00
- Sonar$12.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Qwen Plus, Claude Haiku 3 or Sonar?
Claude Haiku 3 is the better all-round choice, scoring 56/100 against Qwen Plus (53) and Sonar (30). It leads on price and inputs & features. Qwen Plus wins on context window. 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, Qwen Plus, Claude Haiku 3 or Sonar?
Claude Haiku 3 is cheaper at $0.25 input / $1.25 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers). Qwen Plus costs $0.40 input / $1.20 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price); Sonar costs $1.00 input / $1.00 output per million tokens (official Perplexity API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.50 per million tokens for Claude Haiku 3 versus $0.60 for Qwen Plus (1.2× as much) and $1.00 for Sonar (2× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Qwen Plus has not been scored yet, Claude Haiku 3 has an ECI of 118.4 and Sonar has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen Plus, Claude Haiku 3 and Sonar yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Note that Sonar does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen Plus has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 200,000 for Claude Haiku 3 and 128,000 for Sonar. Maximum output per response: Qwen Plus up to 32,768, Claude Haiku 3 up to 4,096, Sonar up to 4,096 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Qwen Plus accepts text; Claude Haiku 3 accepts text, images and PDFs; Sonar accepts text. Claude Haiku 3 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
No. Qwen Plus, Claude Haiku 3 and Sonar are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
Claude Haiku 3 is the newest, released Mar 13, 2024. Qwen Plus came out Jan 25, 2024; Sonar came out Jan 1, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen Plus Apr 2024, Claude Haiku 3 Aug 31, 2023, Sonar Sep 1, 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.
