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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Claude Sonnet 3.7 vs Qwen3 Max vs GPT-4.1

Too close to call on our weighted score (GPT-4.1 53, Claude Sonnet 3.7 50, Qwen3 Max 50). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Anthropic

    Claude Sonnet 3.7

    Released Feb 19, 2025

    50/100
    • ECI141.2
    • Price$3.00 / $15.00
    • Context200K
    Full specs Remove Claude Sonnet 3.7

  2. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 Max

    Released Sep 23, 2025

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

  3. OpenAI

    GPT-4.1

    Released Apr 14, 2025

    53/100
    • ECI136.8
    • Price$2.00 / $8.00
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove GPT-4.1
01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (GPT-4.1 53/100, Claude Sonnet 3.7 50/100, Qwen3 Max 50/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3 Max for raw capability and GPT-4.1 for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3 MaxCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 Max 142.4 · Claude Sonnet 3.7 141.2 · GPT-4.1 136.8
  • Lowest priceQwen3 MaxQwen3 Max $2.40 · GPT-4.1 $3.50 · Claude Sonnet 3.7 $6.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGPT-4.1GPT-4.1 1,047,576 · Qwen3 Max 262,144 · Claude Sonnet 3.7 200,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsClaude Sonnet 3.7 and GPT-4.1Claude Sonnet 3.7: Text, Images, PDFs · Qwen3 Max: Text · GPT-4.1: Text, Images, PDFs
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightClaude Sonnet 3.7Qwen3 MaxGPT-4.1
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%676861
Price25%133224
Inputs & features15%702570
Context window10%323761
Overall100%50/10050/10053/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Claude Sonnet 3.7 vs Qwen3 Max vs GPT-4.1 specifications side by side
SpecificationClaude Sonnet 3.7AnthropicQwen3 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)GPT-4.1OpenAI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)141.2142.4 (best)136.8
ECI rank#96 of 148#91 of 148 (best)#111 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions79.7% (best)72.6%66.9%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—19.0% (best)6.0%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics57.8%73.3% (best)38.3%
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues61.0% (best)—48.5%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—48.8% (best)31.1%
Price per million tokens
Input$3.00$1.20 (best)$2.00
Output$15.00$6.00 (best)$8.00
Cached input——$0.50
Blended (3:1)$6.00$2.40 (best)$3.50
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 3 providersOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial OpenAI API
Limits
Context window200,000 tokens262,144 tokens1,047,576 tokens (best)
Max output64,000 tokens65,536 tokens (best)32,768 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesNoYes
PDFsYesNoYes
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningYesNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietaryProprietary
API model ID—qwen3-maxgpt-4.1
API providers31625 (best)
ReleasedFeb 19, 2025Sep 23, 2025Apr 14, 2025
Knowledge cutoffOct 31, 2024Apr 2025Apr 2024
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.

  • Claude Sonnet 3.7$60.00
  • Qwen3 Max$24.00
  • GPT-4.1$36.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Claude Sonnet 3.7, Qwen3 Max or GPT-4.1?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (GPT-4.1 53/100, Claude Sonnet 3.7 50/100, Qwen3 Max 50/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3 Max for raw capability and GPT-4.1 for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 3.7, Qwen3 Max or GPT-4.1?

Qwen3 Max is cheaper at $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); Claude Sonnet 3.7 costs $3.00 input / $15.00 output per million tokens (median across 3 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $2.40 per million tokens for Qwen3 Max versus $3.50 for GPT-4.1 (1.5× as much) and $6.00 for Claude Sonnet 3.7 (2.5× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3 Max scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 Max 142.4 (#91 of 148), Claude Sonnet 3.7 141.2 (#96 of 148) and GPT-4.1 136.8 (#111 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (140.0–144.6 vs 138.7–142.9), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Claude Sonnet 3.7 79.7%, Qwen3 Max 72.6%, GPT-4.1 66.9%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3 Max 73.3%, Claude Sonnet 3.7 57.8%, GPT-4.1 38.3%.

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, Qwen3 Max 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 Sonnet 3.7. Maximum output per response: Claude Sonnet 3.7 up to 64,000, Qwen3 Max up to 65,536, GPT-4.1 up to 32,768 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Claude Sonnet 3.7 accepts text, images and PDFs; Qwen3 Max accepts text; GPT-4.1 accepts text, images and PDFs. Claude Sonnet 3.7 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

No. Claude Sonnet 3.7, Qwen3 Max and GPT-4.1 are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.

Which is newer?

Qwen3 Max is the newest, released Sep 23, 2025. GPT-4.1 came out Apr 14, 2025; Claude Sonnet 3.7 came out Feb 19, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Sonnet 3.7 Oct 31, 2024, Qwen3 Max Apr 2025, GPT-4.1 Apr 2024.

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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