Claude Sonnet 5 vs GPT-6.1 Sol vs Qwen3.8 Max
GPT-6.1 Sol comes out ahead, 69 to 65 and 59 on our weighted score, though Qwen3.8 Max is 25% cheaper per token.
AnthropicClaude Sonnet 5
59/100- ECI156.3
- Price$2.00 / $10.00
- Context1M
- Our pick
OpenAIGPT-6.1 Sol
69/100- ECI—
- Price$2.00 / $10.00
- Context1.05M
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.8 Max
65/100- ECI156.6
- Price$2.00 / $6.00
- Context1M
GPT-6.1 Sol is our pick
GPT-6.1 Sol is the better all-round choice, scoring 69/100 against Qwen3.8 Max (65) and Claude Sonnet 5 (59). It leads on capability. Qwen3.8 Max wins on price and inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond, FrontierMath Tiers 1–3, OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 and SimpleQA Verified), because GPT-6.1 Sol has no Capabilities Index score yet.
- CapabilityGPT-6.1 SolShared benchmarks: GPT-6.1 Sol 90.7% · Qwen3.8 Max 78.2% · Claude Sonnet 5 71.1%
- Lowest priceQwen3.8 MaxQwen3.8 Max $3.00 · Claude Sonnet 5 $4.00 · GPT-6.1 Sol $4.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGPT-6.1 SolGPT-6.1 Sol 1,050,000 · Claude Sonnet 5 1,000,000 · Qwen3.8 Max 1,000,000 tokens
- Widest inputsQwen3.8 MaxClaude Sonnet 5: Text, Images, PDFs · GPT-6.1 Sol: Text, Images, PDFs · Qwen3.8 Max: Text, Images, PDFs, Video
- Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | Claude Sonnet 5 | GPT-6.1 Sol | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityShared benchmarks | 50% | 71 | 91 | 78 |
| Price | 25% | 21 | 21 | 27 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 80 | 80 | 90 |
| Context window | 10% | 60 | 61 | 60 |
| Overall | 100% | 59/100 | 69/100 | 65/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | GPT-6.1 SolOpenAI | Qwen3.8 MaxAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 156.3 | — | 156.6 (best) |
| ECI rank | #23 of 148 | — | #20 of 148 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 90.5% | 95.4% (best) | 92.7% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 65.6% | 93.7% (best) | 74.7% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 94.7% | 100% (best) | 99.4% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 33.7% | 73.9% (best) | 45.8% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $2.00 | $2.00 | $2.00 |
| Output | $10.00 | $10.00 | $6.00 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.20 | $0.10 (best) | $0.25 |
| Blended (3:1) | $4.00 | $4.00 | $3.00 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Over 272K: $4.00 / $15.00 | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Anthropic API | Official OpenAI API | Official Alibaba API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens | 1,050,000 tokens (best) | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Max output | 128,000 tokens | 128,000 tokens | 131,072 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max | Yeslow · medium · xhigh |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | claude-sonnet-5 | gpt-6.1-sol | qwen3.8-max |
| API providers | 38 (best) | 21 | 25 |
| Released | Jun 30, 2026 | Sep 29, 2026 | Aug 3, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Jan 31, 2026 | Apr 30, 2026 | — |
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 5$40.00
- GPT-6.1 Sol$40.00
- Qwen3.8 Max$32.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Claude Sonnet 5, GPT-6.1 Sol or Qwen3.8 Max?
GPT-6.1 Sol is the better all-round choice, scoring 69/100 against Qwen3.8 Max (65) and Claude Sonnet 5 (59). It leads on capability. Qwen3.8 Max wins on price and inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond, FrontierMath Tiers 1–3, OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 and SimpleQA Verified), because GPT-6.1 Sol has no Capabilities Index score yet.
Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5, GPT-6.1 Sol or Qwen3.8 Max?
Qwen3.8 Max is cheaper at $2.00 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Claude Sonnet 5 costs $2.00 input / $10.00 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price); GPT-6.1 Sol costs $2.00 input / $10.00 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $3.00 per million tokens for Qwen3.8 Max versus $4.00 for Claude Sonnet 5 (1.3× as much) and $4.00 for GPT-6.1 Sol (1.3× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Not every model here has a Capabilities Index score, so we compare the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond, FrontierMath Tiers 1–3, OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 and SimpleQA Verified): GPT-6.1 Sol 90.7%, Qwen3.8 Max 78.2% and Claude Sonnet 5 71.1%. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — GPT-6.1 Sol 95.4%, Qwen3.8 Max 92.7%, Claude Sonnet 5 90.5%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — GPT-6.1 Sol 93.7%, Qwen3.8 Max 74.7%, Claude Sonnet 5 65.6%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — GPT-6.1 Sol 100%, Qwen3.8 Max 99.4%, Claude Sonnet 5 94.7%; SimpleQA Verified — GPT-6.1 Sol 73.9%, Qwen3.8 Max 45.8%, Claude Sonnet 5 33.7%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Claude Sonnet 5, GPT-6.1 Sol and Qwen3.8 Max yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, GPT-6.1 Sol 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-6.1 Sol has the largest context window at 1,050,000 tokens, against 1,000,000 for Claude Sonnet 5 and 1,000,000 for Qwen3.8 Max. Maximum output per response: Claude Sonnet 5 up to 128,000, GPT-6.1 Sol up to 128,000, Qwen3.8 Max up to 131,072 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Claude Sonnet 5 accepts text, images and PDFs; GPT-6.1 Sol accepts text, images and PDFs; Qwen3.8 Max accepts text, images, PDFs and video. Qwen3.8 Max handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
No. Claude Sonnet 5, GPT-6.1 Sol and Qwen3.8 Max are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
GPT-6.1 Sol is the newest, released Sep 29, 2026. Qwen3.8 Max came out Aug 3, 2026; Claude Sonnet 5 came out Jun 30, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Sonnet 5 Jan 31, 2026, GPT-6.1 Sol Apr 30, 2026.
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.
