Qwen3 Max vs Qwen3.5 Plus vs Claude Haiku 4.5
Qwen3.5 Plus comes out ahead, 66 to 58 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
- Our pickAlibaba (Qwen)
Qwen3.5 Plus
66/100- ECI146.8
- Price$0.40 / $2.40
- Context1M
AnthropicClaude Haiku 4.5
58/100- ECI142.4
- Price$1.00 / $5.00
- Context200K
Qwen3.5 Plus is our pick
Qwen3.5 Plus is the better all-round choice, scoring 66/100 against Claude Haiku 4.5 (58) and Qwen3 Max (50). It leads on capability, 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%.
- CapabilityQwen3.5 PlusCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.5 Plus 146.8 · Claude Haiku 4.5 142.4 · Qwen3 Max 142.4
- Lowest priceQwen3.5 PlusQwen3.5 Plus $0.90 · Claude Haiku 4.5 $2.00 · Qwen3 Max $2.40 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen3.5 PlusQwen3.5 Plus 1,000,000 · Qwen3 Max 262,144 · Claude Haiku 4.5 200,000 tokens
- Widest inputsQwen3.5 Plus and Claude Haiku 4.5Qwen3 Max: Text · Qwen3.5 Plus: Text, Images, Video · Claude Haiku 4.5: Text, Images, PDFs
- Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | Qwen3 Max | Qwen3.5 Plus | Claude Haiku 4.5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 68 | 74 | 69 |
| Price | 25% | 32 | 52 | 36 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 25 | 70 | 80 |
| Context window | 10% | 37 | 60 | 32 |
| Overall | 100% | 50/100 | 66/100 | 58/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Qwen3 MaxAlibaba (Qwen) | Qwen3.5 PlusAlibaba (Qwen) | Claude Haiku 4.5Anthropic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 142.4 | 146.8 (best) | 142.4 |
| ECI rank | #91 of 148 | #65 of 148 (best) | #90 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 72.6% | 84.9% (best) | 71.2% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 19.0% | — | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 73.3% | 86.7% (best) | 66.7% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 48.8% (best) | 25.4% | 13.2% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $1.20 | $0.40 (best) | $1.00 |
| Output | $6.00 | $2.40 (best) | $5.00 |
| Cached input | — | — | $0.10 |
| Blended (3:1) | $2.40 | $0.90 (best) | $2.00 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Alibaba API | Official Alibaba API | Official Anthropic API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 262,144 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens (best) | 200,000 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens (best) | 65,536 tokens (best) | 64,000 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | Yes |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | No | Yes | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | qwen3-max | qwen3.5-plus | claude-haiku-4-5 |
| API providers | 16 | 10 | 34 (best) |
| Released | Sep 23, 2025 | Feb 16, 2026 | Oct 15, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Apr 2025 | Apr 2025 | 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
- Qwen3.5 Plus$8.80
- Claude Haiku 4.5$20.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Qwen3 Max, Qwen3.5 Plus or Claude Haiku 4.5?
Qwen3.5 Plus is the better all-round choice, scoring 66/100 against Claude Haiku 4.5 (58) and Qwen3 Max (50). It leads on capability, 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, Qwen3.5 Plus or Claude Haiku 4.5?
Qwen3.5 Plus is cheaper at $0.40 input / $2.40 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). 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 $0.90 per million tokens for Qwen3.5 Plus versus $2.00 for Claude Haiku 4.5 (2.2× as much) and $2.40 for Qwen3 Max (2.7× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Qwen3.5 Plus scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.5 Plus 146.8 (#65 of 148), Claude Haiku 4.5 142.4 (#90 of 148) and Qwen3 Max 142.4 (#91 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (144.6–148.1 vs 139.5–144.3), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3.5 Plus 84.9%, Qwen3 Max 72.6%, Claude Haiku 4.5 71.2%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.5 Plus 86.7%, Qwen3 Max 73.3%, Claude Haiku 4.5 66.7%; SimpleQA Verified — Qwen3 Max 48.8%, Qwen3.5 Plus 25.4%, Claude Haiku 4.5 13.2%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 Max, Qwen3.5 Plus and Claude Haiku 4.5 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3.5 Plus 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?
Qwen3.5 Plus has the largest context window at 1,000,000 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, Qwen3.5 Plus up to 65,536, Claude Haiku 4.5 up to 64,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Qwen3 Max accepts text; Qwen3.5 Plus accepts text, images and video; Claude Haiku 4.5 accepts text, images and PDFs. Qwen3.5 Plus handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
No. Qwen3 Max, Qwen3.5 Plus and Claude Haiku 4.5 are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
Qwen3.5 Plus is the newest, released Feb 16, 2026. Claude Haiku 4.5 came out Oct 15, 2025; Qwen3 Max came out Sep 23, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3 Max Apr 2025, Qwen3.5 Plus Apr 2025, 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.
