Qwen3 Max vs Claude Haiku 3
Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen3 Max 50, Claude Haiku 3 47). The right pick depends on what you value most.
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 Max
50/100- ECI142.4
- Price$1.20 / $6.00
- Context262K
AnthropicClaude Haiku 3
47/100- ECI118.4
- Price$0.25 / $1.25
- Context200K
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Make it a three-way comparison.
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Qwen3 Max 50/100, Claude Haiku 3 47/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3 Max for raw capability and Claude Haiku 3 on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityQwen3 MaxCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 Max 142.4 · Claude Haiku 3 118.4
- Lowest priceClaude Haiku 3Claude Haiku 3 $0.50 · Qwen3 Max $2.40 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen3 MaxQwen3 Max 262,144 · Claude Haiku 3 200,000 tokens
- Widest inputsClaude Haiku 3Qwen3 Max: Text · Claude Haiku 3: Text, Images, PDFs
- Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | Qwen3 Max | Claude Haiku 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 68 | 38 |
| Price | 25% | 32 | 64 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 25 | 60 |
| Context window | 10% | 37 | 32 |
| Overall | 100% | 50/100 | 47/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Qwen3 MaxAlibaba (Qwen) | Claude Haiku 3Anthropic |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | ||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 142.4 (best) | 118.4 |
| ECI rank | #91 of 148 (best) | #143 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 72.6% (best) | 36.3% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 19.0% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 73.3% (best) | 1.8% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 48.8% | — |
| Price per million tokens | ||
| Input | $1.20 | $0.25 (best) |
| Output | $6.00 | $1.25 (best) |
| Cached input | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $2.40 | $0.50 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Alibaba API | Median of 2 providers |
| Limits | ||
| Context window | 262,144 tokens (best) | 200,000 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens (best) | 4,096 tokens |
| Inputs and features | ||
| Text | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes |
| PDFs | No | Yes |
| Audio | No | No |
| Video | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No |
| Availability | ||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | qwen3-max | — |
| API providers | 16 (best) | 2 |
| Released | Sep 23, 2025 | Mar 13, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Apr 2025 | Aug 31, 2023 |
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
- Claude Haiku 3$5.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Qwen3 Max or Claude Haiku 3?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Qwen3 Max 50/100, Claude Haiku 3 47/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3 Max for raw capability and Claude Haiku 3 on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3 Max or Claude Haiku 3?
Claude Haiku 3 is cheaper at $0.25 input / $1.25 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers). Qwen3 Max costs $1.20 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba 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 $2.40 for Qwen3 Max (4.8× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Qwen3 Max scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 Max 142.4 (#91 of 148) and Claude Haiku 3 118.4 (#143 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (140.0–144.6 vs 110.5–121.2), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3 Max 72.6%, Claude Haiku 3 36.3%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3 Max 73.3%, Claude Haiku 3 1.8%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 Max and Claude Haiku 3 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3 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 Max has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 200,000 for Claude Haiku 3. Maximum output per response: Qwen3 Max up to 65,536, Claude Haiku 3 up to 4,096 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Qwen3 Max accepts text; Claude Haiku 3 accepts text, images and PDFs. Claude Haiku 3 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
No. Qwen3 Max and Claude Haiku 3 are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
Qwen3 Max is the newest, released Sep 23, 2025. Claude Haiku 3 came out Mar 13, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3 Max Apr 2025, Claude Haiku 3 Aug 31, 2023.
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.
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