Claude Sonnet 5 vs Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Qwen3.8 Max
Qwen3.8 Max comes out ahead, 69 to 66 and 62 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
AnthropicClaude Sonnet 5
66/100- ECI156.3
- Price$2.00 / $10.00
- Context1M
- Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 4.6
62/100- ECI152.3
- Price$3.00 / $15.00
- Context1M
- Our pick
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.8 Max
69/100- ECI156.6
- Price$2.00 / $6.00
- Context1M
Qwen3.8 Max is our pick
Qwen3.8 Max is the better all-round choice, scoring 69/100 against Claude Sonnet 5 (66) and Claude Sonnet 4.6 (62). It leads on price and inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityQwen3.8 MaxCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.8 Max 156.6 · Claude Sonnet 5 156.3 · Claude Sonnet 4.6 152.3
- Lowest priceQwen3.8 MaxQwen3.8 Max $3.00 · Claude Sonnet 5 $4.00 · Claude Sonnet 4.6 $6.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextAbout the sameClaude Sonnet 5 1,000,000 · Claude Sonnet 4.6 1,000,000 · Qwen3.8 Max 1,000,000 tokens
- Widest inputsQwen3.8 MaxClaude Sonnet 5: Text, Images, PDFs · Claude Sonnet 4.6: 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 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 86 | 81 | 86 |
| Price | 25% | 21 | 13 | 27 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 80 | 80 | 90 |
| Context window | 10% | 60 | 60 | 60 |
| Overall | 100% | 66/100 | 62/100 | 69/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic | Claude Sonnet 4.6Anthropic | Qwen3.8 MaxAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 156.3 | 152.3 | 156.6 (best) |
| ECI rank | #23 of 148 | #40 of 148 | #20 of 148 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 90.5% | 87.4% | 92.7% (best) |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 65.6% | — | 74.7% (best) |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 94.7% | 85.8% | 99.4% (best) |
| SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues | — | 75.2% | — |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 33.7% | 35.5% | 45.8% (best) |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $2.00 (best) | $3.00 | $2.00 (best) |
| Output | $10.00 | $15.00 | $6.00 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.20 (best) | $0.30 | $0.25 |
| Blended (3:1) | $4.00 | $6.00 | $3.00 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Anthropic API | Official Anthropic API | Official Alibaba API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Max output | 128,000 tokens | 64,000 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 · 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 | claude-sonnet-4-6 | qwen3.8-max |
| API providers | 38 | 41 (best) | 25 |
| Released | Jun 30, 2026 | Feb 17, 2026 | Aug 3, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Jan 31, 2026 | Aug 31, 2025 | — |
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
- Claude Sonnet 4.6$60.00
- Qwen3.8 Max$32.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Claude Sonnet 5, Claude Sonnet 4.6 or Qwen3.8 Max?
Qwen3.8 Max is the better all-round choice, scoring 69/100 against Claude Sonnet 5 (66) and Claude Sonnet 4.6 (62). It leads on price and inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5, Claude Sonnet 4.6 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); Claude Sonnet 4.6 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 $3.00 per million tokens for Qwen3.8 Max versus $4.00 for Claude Sonnet 5 (1.3× as much) and $6.00 for Claude Sonnet 4.6 (2× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Qwen3.8 Max scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.8 Max 156.6 (#20 of 148), Claude Sonnet 5 156.3 (#23 of 148) and Claude Sonnet 4.6 152.3 (#40 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (154.5–158.8 vs 153.6–158.8), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3.8 Max 92.7%, Claude Sonnet 5 90.5%, Claude Sonnet 4.6 87.4%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.8 Max 99.4%, Claude Sonnet 5 94.7%, Claude Sonnet 4.6 85.8%; SimpleQA Verified — Qwen3.8 Max 45.8%, Claude Sonnet 4.6 35.5%, Claude Sonnet 5 33.7%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Claude Sonnet 5 and Qwen3.8 Max yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3.8 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?
Claude Sonnet 5, Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Qwen3.8 Max share the same 1,000,000-token context window. Maximum output per response: Claude Sonnet 5 up to 128,000, Claude Sonnet 4.6 up to 64,000, Qwen3.8 Max up to 131,072 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Claude Sonnet 5 accepts text, images and PDFs; Claude Sonnet 4.6 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, Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Qwen3.8 Max are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
Qwen3.8 Max is the newest, released Aug 3, 2026. Claude Sonnet 5 came out Jun 30, 2026; Claude Sonnet 4.6 came out Feb 17, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Sonnet 5 Jan 31, 2026, Claude Sonnet 4.6 Aug 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.
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