Qwen3 Max vs GPT-4.1 vs Claude Haiku 4.5
Claude Haiku 4.5 comes out ahead, 58 to 53 and 50 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 Max
50/100- ECI142.4
- Price$1.20 / $6.00
- Context262K
OpenAIGPT-4.1
53/100- ECI136.8
- Price$2.00 / $8.00
- Context1.05M
- Our pick
AnthropicClaude Haiku 4.5
58/100- ECI142.4
- Price$1.00 / $5.00
- Context200K
Claude Haiku 4.5 is our pick
Claude Haiku 4.5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 58/100 against GPT-4.1 (53) and Qwen3 Max (50). It leads on price and inputs & features. GPT-4.1 wins on context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityClaude Haiku 4.5Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Haiku 4.5 142.4 · Qwen3 Max 142.4 · GPT-4.1 136.8
- Lowest priceClaude Haiku 4.5Claude Haiku 4.5 $2.00 · Qwen3 Max $2.40 · GPT-4.1 $3.50 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGPT-4.1GPT-4.1 1,047,576 · Qwen3 Max 262,144 · Claude Haiku 4.5 200,000 tokens
- Widest inputsGPT-4.1 and Claude Haiku 4.5Qwen3 Max: Text · GPT-4.1: Text, Images, PDFs · Claude Haiku 4.5: Text, Images, PDFs
- Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | Qwen3 Max | GPT-4.1 | Claude Haiku 4.5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 68 | 61 | 69 |
| Price | 25% | 32 | 24 | 36 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 25 | 70 | 80 |
| Context window | 10% | 37 | 61 | 32 |
| Overall | 100% | 50/100 | 53/100 | 58/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Qwen3 MaxAlibaba (Qwen) | GPT-4.1OpenAI | Claude Haiku 4.5Anthropic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 142.4 | 136.8 | 142.4 (best) |
| ECI rank | #91 of 148 | #111 of 148 | #90 of 148 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 72.6% (best) | 66.9% | 71.2% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 19.0% (best) | 6.0% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 73.3% (best) | 38.3% | 66.7% |
| SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues | — | 48.5% | — |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 48.8% (best) | 31.1% | 13.2% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $1.20 | $2.00 | $1.00 (best) |
| Output | $6.00 | $8.00 | $5.00 (best) |
| Cached input | — | $0.50 | $0.10 (best) |
| Blended (3:1) | $2.40 | $3.50 | $2.00 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Alibaba API | Official OpenAI API | Official Anthropic API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 262,144 tokens | 1,047,576 tokens (best) | 200,000 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens (best) | 32,768 tokens | 64,000 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | Yes | Yes |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | Yes | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | qwen3-max | gpt-4.1 | claude-haiku-4-5 |
| API providers | 16 | 25 | 34 (best) |
| Released | Sep 23, 2025 | Apr 14, 2025 | Oct 15, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Apr 2025 | Apr 2024 | Feb 28, 2025 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Qwen3 Max$24.00
- GPT-4.1$36.00
- Claude Haiku 4.5$20.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Qwen3 Max, GPT-4.1 or Claude Haiku 4.5?
Claude Haiku 4.5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 58/100 against GPT-4.1 (53) and Qwen3 Max (50). It leads on price and inputs & features. GPT-4.1 wins on context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3 Max, GPT-4.1 or Claude Haiku 4.5?
Claude Haiku 4.5 is cheaper at $1.00 input / $5.00 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price). Qwen3 Max costs $1.20 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price); GPT-4.1 costs $2.00 input / $8.00 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $2.00 per million tokens for Claude Haiku 4.5 versus $2.40 for Qwen3 Max (1.2× as much) and $3.50 for GPT-4.1 (1.8× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Claude Haiku 4.5 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Haiku 4.5 142.4 (#90 of 148), Qwen3 Max 142.4 (#91 of 148) and GPT-4.1 136.8 (#111 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (139.5–144.3 vs 140.0–144.6), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3 Max 72.6%, Claude Haiku 4.5 71.2%, GPT-4.1 66.9%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3 Max 73.3%, Claude Haiku 4.5 66.7%, GPT-4.1 38.3%; SimpleQA Verified — Qwen3 Max 48.8%, GPT-4.1 31.1%, Claude Haiku 4.5 13.2%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 Max and Claude Haiku 4.5 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Haiku 4.5 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?
GPT-4.1 has the largest context window at 1,047,576 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3 Max and 200,000 for Claude Haiku 4.5. Maximum output per response: Qwen3 Max up to 65,536, GPT-4.1 up to 32,768, Claude Haiku 4.5 up to 64,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Qwen3 Max accepts text; GPT-4.1 accepts text, images and PDFs; Claude Haiku 4.5 accepts text, images and PDFs. GPT-4.1 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
No. Qwen3 Max, GPT-4.1 and Claude Haiku 4.5 are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
Claude Haiku 4.5 is the newest, released Oct 15, 2025. Qwen3 Max came out Sep 23, 2025; GPT-4.1 came out Apr 14, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3 Max Apr 2025, GPT-4.1 Apr 2024, Claude Haiku 4.5 Feb 28, 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.
