Compare / Qwen3-Max vs Claude 3 Opus
Qwen3-Max vs Claude 3 Opus
Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 10 results on 3 sources that measured both models.
Of the 10 results both models have, the better value on each. Results whose reported ranges overlap are too close to call.
Results as of 13 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-13-2e2420e3c5cc). See also Alibaba vs Anthropic, every model from both labs.
Qwen3-Max or Claude 3 Opus? The short answer
They score and cost about the same: pick on the results below that match your work.
- Qwen3-Max is newer: released 24 Sep 2025, against 4 Mar 2024 for Claude 3 Opus.
- On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Qwen3-Max does better for sticking to the facts.
Head to head
Every fact side by side
| Qwen3-Max | Claude 3 Opus | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per million tokens | $0.78 in · $3.90 out | Not on sale |
| Blended (3 in : 1 out) | $1.56 | – |
| Cheapest host, blended | – | – |
| Intelligence Index | 15.6 | – |
| Spring Prompt overall | – | – |
| Output speed, tokens a second | – | – |
| Context window | 262,144 tokens | – |
| Released | 24 Sep 2025 (newer) | 4 Mar 2024 |
| 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.
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-Max | Claude 3 Opus |
|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results | ||
| Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 108 · 229 of 387 measured | 1,423 | 1,322 |
| Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 110 · 239 of 380 measured | 1,419 | 1,305 |
| Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 105 · 224 of 385 measured | 1,393 | 1,288 |
| SimpleQA Verified (Epoch AI) reported by SimpleQA Verified (Epoch AI) · 1 result | ||
| Correct answers% of questions, higher is better 27 · 71 of 76 measured | 48.7% | 12.6% |
| UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results | ||
| Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 115 · 62 of 230 measured | 38.6 | 54.3 |
| Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better 134 · 111 of 230 measured | 23.0% | 20.0% |
| Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better 155 · 113 of 230 measured | 0.33 | 0.35 |
Show all 10 results (3 more)
| Measure | Qwen3-Max | Claude 3 Opus |
|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results | ||
| Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 137 · 217 of 338 measured | 1,417 | 1,318 |
| Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 106 · 217 of 387 measured | 1,413 | 1,314 |
| Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 101 · 202 of 386 measured | 1,405 | 1,316 |
Compare them with other models
Quick answers
Is Qwen3-Max better than Claude 3 Opus?
They score and cost about the same: pick on the results below that match your work.
Which is better for writing, Qwen3-Max or Claude 3 Opus?
Qwen3-Max ranks 99 of 188 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 112 for Claude 3 Opus.
Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3-Max or Claude 3 Opus?
Qwen3-Max ranks 50 of 152 models on sale for summarising without inventing things, and factual answers, against 144 for Claude 3 Opus.
Run Qwen3-Max and Claude 3 Opus on your own prompt
Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.