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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3 Max vs Claude Sonnet 4.5

Claude Sonnet 4.5 comes out ahead, 55 to 50 on our weighted score, though Qwen3 Max is 2.5× cheaper per token.

  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

    Anthropic

    Claude Sonnet 4.5

    Released Sep 29, 2025

    55/100
    • ECI146.8
    • Price$3.00 / $15.00
    • Context200K
    Full specs Remove Claude Sonnet 4.5

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is our pick

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 55/100 against Qwen3 Max (50). It leads on capability and inputs & features. Qwen3 Max wins on price and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityClaude Sonnet 4.5Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 4.5 146.8 · Qwen3 Max 142.4
  • Lowest priceQwen3 MaxQwen3 Max $2.40 · Claude Sonnet 4.5 $6.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3 MaxQwen3 Max 262,144 · Claude Sonnet 4.5 200,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsClaude Sonnet 4.5Qwen3 Max: Text · Claude Sonnet 4.5: Text, Images, PDFs
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3 MaxClaude Sonnet 4.5
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%6874
Price25%3213
Inputs & features15%2580
Context window10%3732
Overall100%50/10055/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3 Max vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)Claude Sonnet 4.5Anthropic
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)142.4146.8 (best)
ECI rank#91 of 148#64 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions72.6%82.3% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics19.0%23.9% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics73.3%77.8% (best)
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues—71.3%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions48.8% (best)30.7%
Price per million tokens
Input$1.20 (best)$3.00
Output$6.00 (best)$15.00
Cached input—$0.30
Blended (3:1)$2.40 (best)$6.00
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Anthropic API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens (best)200,000 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens (best)64,000 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoYes
PDFsNoYes
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
API model IDqwen3-maxclaude-sonnet-4-5
API providers1628 (best)
ReleasedSep 23, 2025Sep 29, 2025
Knowledge cutoffApr 2025Jul 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 Max$24.00
  • Claude Sonnet 4.5$60.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3 Max or Claude Sonnet 4.5?

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 55/100 against Qwen3 Max (50). It leads on capability and inputs & features. Qwen3 Max wins on price and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3 Max or Claude Sonnet 4.5?

Qwen3 Max is cheaper at $1.20 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Claude Sonnet 4.5 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 $2.40 per million tokens for Qwen3 Max versus $6.00 for Claude Sonnet 4.5 (2.5× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Claude Sonnet 4.5 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Sonnet 4.5 146.8 (#64 of 148) and Qwen3 Max 142.4 (#91 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (145.3–148.5 vs 140.0–144.6), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Claude Sonnet 4.5 82.3%, Qwen3 Max 72.6%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Claude Sonnet 4.5 23.9%, Qwen3 Max 19.0%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Claude Sonnet 4.5 77.8%, Qwen3 Max 73.3%; SimpleQA Verified — Qwen3 Max 48.8%, Claude Sonnet 4.5 30.7%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 Max yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Sonnet 4.5 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 Sonnet 4.5. Maximum output per response: Qwen3 Max up to 65,536, Claude Sonnet 4.5 up to 64,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3 Max accepts text; Claude Sonnet 4.5 accepts text, images and PDFs. Claude Sonnet 4.5 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

No. Qwen3 Max and Claude Sonnet 4.5 are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.

Which is newer?

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is the newest, released Sep 29, 2025. Qwen3 Max came out Sep 23, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3 Max Apr 2025, Claude Sonnet 4.5 Jul 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

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