Compare / Qwen3.8-Max (0902) vs Claude Opus 4.6
Qwen3.8-Max (0902) vs Claude Opus 4.6
Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 14 results on 4 sources that measured both models.
Of the 14 results both models have, the better value on each. Results whose reported ranges overlap are too close to call.
Results as of 9 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-09-dd620e778ac5). See also Alibaba vs Anthropic, every model from both labs.
Qwen3.8-Max (0902) or Claude Opus 4.6? The short answer
Pick Qwen3.8-Max (0902): it scores higher (Intelligence Index 45.4 against 31.9) and costs less.
- Qwen3.8-Max (0902) is cheaper: $3.00 against $10.00 per million tokens, 3.3 times less.
- Qwen3.8-Max (0902) scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 45.4 against 31.9.
- Qwen3.8-Max (0902) is newer: released 3 Aug 2026, against 5 Feb 2026 for Claude Opus 4.6.
- On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Qwen3.8-Max (0902) does better for reasoning and knowledge; Claude Opus 4.6 for writing.
Head to head
Every fact side by side
| Qwen3.8-Max (0902) | Claude Opus 4.6 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per million tokens | $2.00 in · $6.00 out | $5.00 in · $25.00 out |
| Blended (3 in : 1 out) | $3.00 | $10.00 |
| Cheapest host, blended | – | $10.00 (Amazon Bedrock) |
| Intelligence Index | 45.4 | 31.9 |
| Spring Prompt overall | 48 | – |
| Output speed, tokens a second | 37 | – |
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Released | 3 Aug 2026 (newer) | 5 Feb 2026 |
| Weights | Closed | Closed |
| Developer based in | China | the US |
Prices are the developer's list price where we have read it, otherwise the typical host on OpenRouter; see every model's price. Intelligence and speed from Artificial Analysis.
Which is better for what
Each model's rank among the models on sale today, for each kind of work, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. Further right is better; the better rank is in green.
From our research
Every shared result
Each model's best result on every measure both have, grouped by benchmark, with the setting that produced it. Under each measure, every model that benchmark has measured is a grey tick, best to the right, so you can see where the two sit in the field. The headline measures of each benchmark come first; the rest are under "Show all". Green marks the better value; where a source reports ranges that overlap, neither is marked.
| Measure | Qwen3.8-Max (0902) | Claude Opus 4.6 |
|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results | ||
| Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 20 · 2 of 387 measured | 1,482 | 1,505high reasoning |
| Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better 22 · 4 of 163 measured | 1,472 | 1,494high reasoning |
| Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 16 · 6 of 380 measured | 1,484 | 1,501high reasoning |
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results | ||
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 14 · 47 of 243 measured | 45.4 | 31.9max reasoning |
| GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 15 · 47 of 231 measured | 92.8% | 89.6%max reasoning |
| Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 24 · 40 of 242 measured | 43.1% | 39.9%max reasoning |
| SimpleQA Verified (Epoch AI) reported by SimpleQA Verified (Epoch AI) · 1 result | ||
| Correct answers% of questions, higher is better 30 · 31 of 76 measured | 47.3%xhigh reasoning | 47.0%max reasoning |
| τ²-bench reported by τ²-bench · 2 results | ||
| Consistency (pass^4) · tau2 v1.0.1, banking knowledge, alltools retrieval% of tasks, higher is better 1 · 15 of 21 measured | 35.1%xhigh reasoning, tau2 | 11.3%max reasoning, tau2 |
| Task success (pass^1) · tau2 v1.0.1, banking knowledge, alltools retrieval% of tasks, higher is better 1 · 14 of 21 measured | 55.2%xhigh reasoning, tau2 | 27.3%max reasoning, tau2 |
Show all 14 results (5 more)
| Measure | Qwen3.8-Max (0902) | Claude Opus 4.6 |
|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 4 results | ||
| Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 17 · 4 of 385 measured | 1,468 | 1,501high reasoning |
| Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 20 · 3 of 338 measured | 1,513 | 1,547high reasoning |
| Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 25 · 3 of 387 measured | 1,474 | 1,514high reasoning |
| Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 18 · 4 of 386 measured | 1,472 | 1,500high reasoning |
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 1 result | ||
| Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 35 · 59 of 233 measured | 80.3% | 78.0%max reasoning |
Compare them with other models
Quick answers
Is Qwen3.8-Max (0902) better than Claude Opus 4.6?
Pick Qwen3.8-Max (0902): it scores higher (Intelligence Index 45.4 against 31.9) and costs less.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3.8-Max (0902) or Claude Opus 4.6?
Qwen3.8-Max (0902) is cheaper: $3.00 against $10.00 per million tokens, 3.3 times less.
Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3.8-Max (0902) or Claude Opus 4.6?
Qwen3.8-Max (0902) ranks 7 of 164 models on sale for multi-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls, against 17 for Claude Opus 4.6.
Which is better for professional work, Qwen3.8-Max (0902) or Claude Opus 4.6?
Qwen3.8-Max (0902) ranks 18 of 51 models on sale for real tasks from banking, consulting and law, business documents and freelance projects, against 27 for Claude Opus 4.6.
Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Qwen3.8-Max (0902) or Claude Opus 4.6?
Qwen3.8-Max (0902) ranks 17 of 198 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 46 for Claude Opus 4.6.
Which is better for writing, Qwen3.8-Max (0902) or Claude Opus 4.6?
Claude Opus 4.6 ranks 3 of 188 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 16 for Qwen3.8-Max (0902).
Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3.8-Max (0902) or Claude Opus 4.6?
Qwen3.8-Max (0902) ranks 38 of 152 models on sale for summarising without inventing things, and factual answers, against 59 for Claude Opus 4.6.
Run Qwen3.8-Max (0902) and Claude Opus 4.6 on your own prompt
Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.