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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3 Max vs Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct vs Claude Haiku 4.5

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct comes out ahead, 62 to 58 and 50 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 Max

    Released Sep 23, 2025

    50/100
    • ECI142.4
    • Price$1.20 / $6.00
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 Max
  2. Our pick

    Meta

    Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct

    Released Apr 5, 2025

    62/100
    • ECI129.7
    • Price$0.225 / $0.69
    • Context10M
    Full specs Remove Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct

  3. Anthropic

    Claude Haiku 4.5

    Released Oct 15, 2025

    58/100
    • ECI142.4
    • Price$1.00 / $5.00
    • Context200K
    Full specs Remove Claude Haiku 4.5
01 — Verdict

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is our pick

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 62/100 against Claude Haiku 4.5 (58) and Qwen3 Max (50). It leads on price and context window. Claude Haiku 4.5 wins on inputs & features. 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 · Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 129.7
  • Lowest priceLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct $0.341 · Claude Haiku 4.5 $2.00 · Qwen3 Max $2.40 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructLlama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 10,000,000 · Qwen3 Max 262,144 · Claude Haiku 4.5 200,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsClaude Haiku 4.5Qwen3 Max: Text · Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct: Text, Images · Claude Haiku 4.5: Text, Images, PDFs
  • Self-hostingLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3 MaxLlama 4 Scout 17B InstructClaude Haiku 4.5
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%685269
Price25%327236
Inputs & features15%255080
Context window10%3710032
Overall100%50/10062/10058/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3 Max vs Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct vs Claude Haiku 4.5 specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)Llama 4 Scout 17B InstructMetaClaude Haiku 4.5Anthropic
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)142.4129.7142.4 (best)
ECI rank#91 of 148#126 of 148#90 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions72.6% (best)51.8%71.2%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics19.0%——
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics73.3% (best)7.8%66.7%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions48.8% (best)—13.2%
Price per million tokens
Input$1.20$0.225 (best)$1.00
Output$6.00$0.69 (best)$5.00
Cached input——$0.10
Blended (3:1)$2.40$0.341 (best)$2.00
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIMedian of 4 providersOfficial Anthropic API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens10,000,000 tokens (best)200,000 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens (best)16,384 tokens64,000 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoYesYes
PDFsNoNoYes
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningNoNoYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpenProprietary
API model IDqwen3-max—claude-haiku-4-5
API providers16434 (best)
ReleasedSep 23, 2025Apr 5, 2025Oct 15, 2025
Knowledge cutoffApr 2025Aug 2024Feb 28, 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 Max$24.00
  • Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct$3.63
  • Claude Haiku 4.5$20.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3 Max, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct or Claude Haiku 4.5?

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is the better all-round choice, scoring 62/100 against Claude Haiku 4.5 (58) and Qwen3 Max (50). It leads on price and context window. Claude Haiku 4.5 wins on inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3 Max, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct or Claude Haiku 4.5?

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct is cheaper at $0.225 input / $0.69 output per million tokens (median across 4 API providers). Claude Haiku 4.5 costs $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). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.341 per million tokens for Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct versus $2.00 for Claude Haiku 4.5 (5.9× as much) and $2.40 for Qwen3 Max (7× 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 Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 129.7 (#126 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%, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 51.8%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3 Max 73.3%, Claude Haiku 4.5 66.7%, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 7.8%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 Max, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct 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?

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct has the largest context window at 10,000,000 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, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct up to 16,384, Claude Haiku 4.5 up to 64,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3 Max accepts text; Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct accepts text and images; Claude Haiku 4.5 accepts text, images and PDFs. Claude Haiku 4.5 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Qwen3 Max and Claude Haiku 4.5 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Claude Haiku 4.5 is the newest, released Oct 15, 2025. Qwen3 Max came out Sep 23, 2025; Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct came out Apr 5, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3 Max Apr 2025, Llama 4 Scout 17B Instruct Aug 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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