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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Qwen3.8 Max 0902 vs Claude Sonnet 5 vs Grok 4.6

Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen3.8 Max 0902 67, Claude Sonnet 5 66, Grok 4.6 64). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.8 Max 0902

    Released Sep 2, 2026

    67/100
    • ECI156.2
    • Price$2.00 / $6.00
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.8 Max 0902

  2. Anthropic

    Claude Sonnet 5

    Released Jun 30, 2026

    66/100
    • ECI157.0
    • Price$2.00 / $10.00
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Claude Sonnet 5

  3. xAI

    Grok 4.6

    Released Aug 12, 2026

    64/100
    • ECI156.9
    • Price$2.00 / $6.00
    • Context500K
    Full specs Remove Grok 4.6
01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Qwen3.8 Max 0902 67/100, Claude Sonnet 5 66/100, Grok 4.6 64/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Claude Sonnet 5 for raw capability and Qwen3.8 Max 0902 on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityClaude Sonnet 5Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 5 157.0 · Grok 4.6 156.9 · Qwen3.8 Max 0902 156.2
  • Lowest priceQwen3.8 Max 0902 and Grok 4.6Qwen3.8 Max 0902 $3.00 · Grok 4.6 $3.00 · Claude Sonnet 5 $4.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3.8 Max 0902 and Claude Sonnet 5Qwen3.8 Max 0902 1,000,000 · Claude Sonnet 5 1,000,000 · Grok 4.6 500,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.8 Max 0902Qwen3.8 Max 0902: Text, Images, PDFs, Video · Claude Sonnet 5: Text, Images, PDFs · Grok 4.6: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3.8 Max 0902Claude Sonnet 5Grok 4.6
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%848585
Price25%262026
Inputs & features15%808070
Context window10%606048
Overall100%67/10066/10064/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3.8 Max 0902 vs Claude Sonnet 5 vs Grok 4.6 specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.8 Max 0902Alibaba (Qwen)Claude Sonnet 5AnthropicGrok 4.6xAI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)156.2157.0 (best)156.9
ECI rank#32 of 165#26 of 165 (best)#27 of 165
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions92.3%90.5%94.0% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics65.6%65.6%66.0% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics100% (best)94.7%99.2%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions47.3%33.7%49.3% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$2.00$2.00$2.00
Output$6.00 (best)$10.00$6.00 (best)
Cached input—$0.20 (best)$0.50
Blended (3:1)$3.00 (best)$4.00$3.00 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateOver 200K: $4.00 / $12.00
Price sourceMedian of 9 providersOfficial Anthropic APIOfficial xAI API
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens (best)1,000,000 tokens (best)500,000 tokens
Max output131,072 tokens128,000 tokens500,000 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesYes
PDFsYesYesNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoYesNoNo
ReasoningYesYeslow · medium · high · xhigh · maxYeslow · medium · high · xhigh
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoYesYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietaryProprietary
API model ID—claude-sonnet-5grok-4.6
API providers944 (best)33
ReleasedSep 2, 2026Jun 30, 2026Aug 12, 2026
Knowledge cutoff—Jan 31, 2026Feb 1, 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.

  • Qwen3.8 Max 0902$32.00
  • Claude Sonnet 5$40.00
  • Grok 4.6$32.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3.8 Max 0902, Claude Sonnet 5 or Grok 4.6?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Qwen3.8 Max 0902 67/100, Claude Sonnet 5 66/100, Grok 4.6 64/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Claude Sonnet 5 for raw capability and Qwen3.8 Max 0902 on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.8 Max 0902, Claude Sonnet 5 or Grok 4.6?

Qwen3.8 Max 0902 is cheaper at $2.00 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (median across 9 API providers). Grok 4.6 costs $2.00 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official xAI API price); Claude Sonnet 5 costs $2.00 input / $10.00 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 0902 versus $3.00 for Grok 4.6 (1× as much) and $4.00 for Claude Sonnet 5 (1.3× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Claude Sonnet 5 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 5 157.0 (#26 of 165), Grok 4.6 156.9 (#27 of 165) and Qwen3.8 Max 0902 156.2 (#32 of 165). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (154.2–159.7 vs 155.1–159.4), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Grok 4.6 94.0%, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 92.3%, Claude Sonnet 5 90.5%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Grok 4.6 66.0%, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 65.6%, Claude Sonnet 5 65.6%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.8 Max 0902 100%, Grok 4.6 99.2%, Claude Sonnet 5 94.7%; SimpleQA Verified — Grok 4.6 49.3%, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 47.3%, Claude Sonnet 5 33.7%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3.8 Max 0902, Claude Sonnet 5 and Grok 4.6 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Sonnet 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?

Qwen3.8 Max 0902 and Claude Sonnet 5 have the largest context windows (1,000,000 and 1,000,000 tokens), against 500,000 for Grok 4.6. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.8 Max 0902 up to 131,072, Claude Sonnet 5 up to 128,000, Grok 4.6 up to 500,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3.8 Max 0902 accepts text, images, PDFs and video; Claude Sonnet 5 accepts text, images and PDFs; Grok 4.6 accepts text and images. Qwen3.8 Max 0902 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

No. Qwen3.8 Max 0902, Claude Sonnet 5 and Grok 4.6 are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.8 Max 0902 is the newest, released Sep 2, 2026. Grok 4.6 came out Aug 12, 2026; Claude Sonnet 5 came out Jun 30, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Sonnet 5 Jan 31, 2026, Grok 4.6 Feb 1, 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 Nov 2, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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