Qwen3.6 Max Preview vs Claude Opus 5 vs GLM-5.1
Claude Opus 5 comes out ahead, 66 to 57 and 54 on our weighted score, though GLM-5.1 is 4.7× cheaper per token.
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.6 Max Preview
54/100- ECI149.2
- Price$1.30 / $7.80
- Context262K
- Our pick
AnthropicClaude Opus 5
66/100- ECI162.9
- Price$5.00 / $25.00
- Context1M
Z.ai (Zhipu)GLM-5.1
57/100- ECI149.9
- Price$1.40 / $4.40
- Context200K
Claude Opus 5 is our pick
Claude Opus 5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 66/100 against GLM-5.1 (57) and Qwen3.6 Max Preview (54). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. GLM-5.1 wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityClaude Opus 5Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Opus 5 162.9 · GLM-5.1 149.9 · Qwen3.6 Max Preview 149.2
- Lowest priceGLM-5.1GLM-5.1 $2.15 · Qwen3.6 Max Preview $2.92 · Claude Opus 5 $10.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextClaude Opus 5Claude Opus 5 1,000,000 · Qwen3.6 Max Preview 262,144 · GLM-5.1 200,000 tokens
- Widest inputsClaude Opus 5Qwen3.6 Max Preview: Text · Claude Opus 5: Text, Images, PDFs · GLM-5.1: Text
- Self-hostingGLM-5.1Publishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Qwen3.6 Max Preview | Claude Opus 5 | GLM-5.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 77 | 94 | 78 |
| Price | 25% | 28 | 2 | 34 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 35 | 80 | 45 |
| Context window | 10% | 37 | 60 | 32 |
| Overall | 100% | 54/100 | 66/100 | 57/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Qwen3.6 Max PreviewAlibaba (Qwen) | Claude Opus 5Anthropic | GLM-5.1Z.ai (Zhipu) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 149.2 | 162.9 (best) | 149.9 |
| ECI rank | #54 of 148 | #5 of 148 (best) | #51 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 87.4% | 93.9% (best) | 89.9% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | — | 85.6% (best) | 36.8% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 91.1% | 98.9% (best) | 93.3% |
| SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues | 76.7% (best) | — | 74.2% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 52.0% | 59.9% (best) | 34.0% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $1.30 (best) | $5.00 | $1.40 |
| Output | $7.80 | $25.00 | $4.40 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.13 (best) | $0.50 | $0.26 |
| Blended (3:1) | $2.92 | $10.00 | $2.15 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Alibaba API | Official Anthropic API | Official Z.AI API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 262,144 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens (best) | 200,000 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens | 128,000 tokens | 131,072 tokens (best) |
| 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 | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | Yes | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Open |
| API model ID | qwen3.6-max-preview | claude-opus-5 | glm-5.1 |
| API providers | 10 | 35 | 40 (best) |
| Released | Apr 20, 2026 | Jul 24, 2026 | Apr 7, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Apr 2025 | May 2026 | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview$28.60
- Claude Opus 5$100.00
- GLM-5.1$22.80
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Qwen3.6 Max Preview, Claude Opus 5 or GLM-5.1?
Claude Opus 5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 66/100 against GLM-5.1 (57) and Qwen3.6 Max Preview (54). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. GLM-5.1 wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6 Max Preview, Claude Opus 5 or GLM-5.1?
GLM-5.1 is cheaper at $1.40 input / $4.40 output per million tokens (official Z.AI API price). Qwen3.6 Max Preview costs $1.30 input / $7.80 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price); Claude Opus 5 costs $5.00 input / $25.00 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $2.15 per million tokens for GLM-5.1 versus $2.92 for Qwen3.6 Max Preview (1.4× as much) and $10.00 for Claude Opus 5 (4.7× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Claude Opus 5 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Opus 5 162.9 (#5 of 148), GLM-5.1 149.9 (#51 of 148) and Qwen3.6 Max Preview 149.2 (#54 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (160.2–166.7 vs 148.0–151.6), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Claude Opus 5 93.9%, GLM-5.1 89.9%, Qwen3.6 Max Preview 87.4%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Claude Opus 5 98.9%, GLM-5.1 93.3%, Qwen3.6 Max Preview 91.1%; SimpleQA Verified — Claude Opus 5 59.9%, Qwen3.6 Max Preview 52.0%, GLM-5.1 34.0%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Claude Opus 5 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Opus 5 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?
Claude Opus 5 has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3.6 Max Preview and 200,000 for GLM-5.1. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.6 Max Preview up to 65,536, Claude Opus 5 up to 128,000, GLM-5.1 up to 131,072 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Qwen3.6 Max Preview accepts text; Claude Opus 5 accepts text, images and PDFs; GLM-5.1 accepts text. Claude Opus 5 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
GLM-5.1 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Qwen3.6 Max Preview and Claude Opus 5 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Claude Opus 5 is the newest, released Jul 24, 2026. Qwen3.6 Max Preview came out Apr 20, 2026; GLM-5.1 came out Apr 7, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3.6 Max Preview Apr 2025, Claude Opus 5 May 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.
