ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3.8 Max vs Claude Sonnet 4.6

Qwen3.8 Max comes out ahead, 69 to 62 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Our pick

    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

  2. Anthropic

    Claude Sonnet 4.6

    Released Feb 17, 2026

    62/100
    • ECI152.3
    • Price$3.00 / $15.00
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Claude Sonnet 4.6

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Qwen3.8 Max is our pick

Qwen3.8 Max is the better all-round choice, scoring 69/100 against Claude Sonnet 4.6 (62). It leads on capability, price and inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3.8 MaxCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.8 Max 156.6 · Claude Sonnet 4.6 152.3
  • Lowest priceQwen3.8 MaxQwen3.8 Max $3.00 · Claude Sonnet 4.6 $6.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextAbout the sameQwen3.8 Max 1,000,000 · Claude Sonnet 4.6 1,000,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.8 MaxQwen3.8 Max: Text, Images, PDFs, Video · Claude Sonnet 4.6: Text, Images, PDFs
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3.8 MaxClaude Sonnet 4.6
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%8681
Price25%2713
Inputs & features15%9080
Context window10%6060
Overall100%69/10062/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3.8 Max vs Claude Sonnet 4.6 specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.8 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)Claude Sonnet 4.6Anthropic
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)156.6 (best)152.3
ECI rank#20 of 148 (best)#40 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions92.7% (best)87.4%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics74.7%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics99.4% (best)85.8%
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues—75.2%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions45.8% (best)35.5%
Price per million tokens
Input$2.00 (best)$3.00
Output$6.00 (best)$15.00
Cached input$0.25 (best)$0.30
Blended (3:1)$3.00 (best)$6.00
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Anthropic API
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens1,000,000 tokens
Max output131,072 tokens (best)64,000 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsYesYes
AudioNoNo
VideoYesNo
ReasoningYeslow · medium · xhighYeslow · medium · high · max
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
API model IDqwen3.8-maxclaude-sonnet-4-6
API providers2541 (best)
ReleasedAug 3, 2026Feb 17, 2026
Knowledge cutoff—Aug 31, 2025
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$32.00
  • Claude Sonnet 4.6$60.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3.8 Max or Claude Sonnet 4.6?

Qwen3.8 Max is the better all-round choice, scoring 69/100 against Claude Sonnet 4.6 (62). It leads on capability, price and inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

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

Qwen3.8 Max is cheaper at $2.00 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs $3.00 input / $15.00 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 $6.00 for Claude Sonnet 4.6 (2× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3.8 Max scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.8 Max 156.6 (#20 of 148) and Claude Sonnet 4.6 152.3 (#40 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (154.5–158.8 vs 149.6–154.7), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3.8 Max 92.7%, Claude Sonnet 4.6 87.4%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.8 Max 99.4%, Claude Sonnet 4.6 85.8%; SimpleQA Verified — Qwen3.8 Max 45.8%, Claude Sonnet 4.6 35.5%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3.8 Max yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3.8 Max 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?

Qwen3.8 Max and Claude Sonnet 4.6 share the same 1,000,000-token context window. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.8 Max up to 131,072, Claude Sonnet 4.6 up to 64,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

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

Are any of these open source?

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

Which is newer?

Qwen3.8 Max is the newest, released Aug 3, 2026. Claude Sonnet 4.6 came out Feb 17, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Sonnet 4.6 Aug 31, 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.

05 — Keep comparing

Related comparisons