Compare / Qwen3.8-Max (0902) vs Claude Sonnet 5
Qwen3.8-Max (0902) vs Claude Sonnet 5
Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 21 results on 3 sources that measured both models.
Of the 21 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 Sonnet 5? The short answer
Pick Qwen3.8-Max (0902): it scores higher (Intelligence Index 45.4 against 38.2) and costs less.
- Qwen3.8-Max (0902) is cheaper: $3.00 against $4.00 per million tokens, 25% less.
- Qwen3.8-Max (0902) scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 45.4 against 38.2.
- Qwen3.8-Max (0902) is newer: released 3 Aug 2026, against 30 Jun 2026 for Claude Sonnet 5.
- On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Qwen3.8-Max (0902) does better for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge, writing and sticking to the facts.
Head to head
Every fact side by side
| Qwen3.8-Max (0902) | Claude Sonnet 5 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per million tokens | $2.00 in · $6.00 out | $2.00 in · $10.00 out |
| Blended (3 in : 1 out) | $3.00 | $4.00 |
| Cheapest host, blended | – | $4.00 (Amazon Bedrock) |
| Cached input, per million | – | $0.20 cached input |
| Intelligence Index | 45.4 | 38.2 |
| 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) | 30 Jun 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 Sonnet 5 |
|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results | ||
| Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 20 · 49 of 387 measured | 1,482 | 1,462high reasoning |
| Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better 22 · 55 of 163 measured | 1,472 | 1,452high reasoning |
| Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 16 · 44 of 380 measured | 1,484 | 1,465high reasoning |
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results | ||
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 14 · 34 of 243 measured | 45.4 | 38.2max reasoning |
| GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 15 · 31 of 231 measured | 92.8% | 91.1%max reasoning |
| Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 24 · 34 of 242 measured | 43.1% | 41.3%max reasoning |
| SimpleQA Verified (Epoch AI) reported by SimpleQA Verified (Epoch AI) · 1 result | ||
| Correct answers% of questions, higher is better 30 · 53 of 76 measured | 47.3%xhigh reasoning | 33.7%max reasoning |
Show all 21 results (14 more)
| Measure | Qwen3.8-Max (0902) | Claude Sonnet 5 |
|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 8 results | ||
| Confirmed task success · AgentIPS effect estimate, higher is better 20 · 26 of 48 measured | 0.05arena agent | 0.01high reasoning, arena agent |
| Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 17 · 54 of 385 measured | 1,468 | 1,435high reasoning |
| Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 20 · 22 of 338 measured | 1,513 | 1,512high reasoning |
| Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 25 · 33 of 387 measured | 1,474 | 1,467high reasoning |
| Praise over complaint · AgentIPS effect estimate, higher is better 20 · 13 of 48 measured | 0.03arena agent | 0.09high reasoning, arena agent |
| Steerability · AgentIPS effect estimate, higher is better 18 · 14 of 48 measured | 0.03arena agent | 0.05high reasoning, arena agent |
| Tool grounding · AgentIPS effect estimate, higher is better 43 · 19 of 48 measured | -0.01arena agent | 0.00high reasoning, arena agent |
| Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 18 · 43 of 386 measured | 1,472 | 1,451high reasoning |
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 6 results | ||
| Terminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks, higher is better 5 · 23 of 130 measured | 88.8% | 80.5%max reasoning |
| Terminal-Bench 4.0% of tasks, higher is better 12 · 29 of 112 measured | 38.9% | 14.1%max reasoning |
| τ-bench banking% of tasks, higher is better 7 · 24 of 121 measured | 47.8% | 37.3%max reasoning |
| Artificial Analysis Coding Indexindex score, higher is better 10 · 22 of 131 measured | 76.2 | 71.5max reasoning |
| Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 35 · 24 of 233 measured | 80.3% | 82.0%max reasoning |
| SciCode% of problems, higher is better 36 · 28 of 113 measured | 52.1% | 54.3%high reasoning |
Compare them with other models
Quick answers
Is Qwen3.8-Max (0902) better than Claude Sonnet 5?
Pick Qwen3.8-Max (0902): it scores higher (Intelligence Index 45.4 against 38.2) and costs less.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3.8-Max (0902) or Claude Sonnet 5?
Qwen3.8-Max (0902) is cheaper: $3.00 against $4.00 per million tokens, 25% less.
Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3.8-Max (0902) or Claude Sonnet 5?
Qwen3.8-Max (0902) ranks 7 of 164 models on sale for multi-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls, against 35 for Claude Sonnet 5.
Which is better for professional work, Qwen3.8-Max (0902) or Claude Sonnet 5?
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 19 for Claude Sonnet 5.
Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Qwen3.8-Max (0902) or Claude Sonnet 5?
Qwen3.8-Max (0902) ranks 17 of 198 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 33 for Claude Sonnet 5.
Which is better for writing, Qwen3.8-Max (0902) or Claude Sonnet 5?
Qwen3.8-Max (0902) ranks 16 of 188 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 37 for Claude Sonnet 5.
Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3.8-Max (0902) or Claude Sonnet 5?
Qwen3.8-Max (0902) ranks 38 of 152 models on sale for summarising without inventing things, and factual answers, against 85 for Claude Sonnet 5.
Run Qwen3.8-Max (0902) and Claude Sonnet 5 on your own prompt
Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.