Qwen3.8 Max vs Claude Opus 5.5
Official Qwen and Anthropic API prices and LMArena scores, checked 2026-10-29. Add up to 2 more models to compare 4.
Qwen3.8 Max costs less; Claude Opus 5.5 wins more LMArena tasks.
Qwen3.8 Max is 2x cheaper on input and 3.3x cheaper on output. Claude Opus 5.5 scores 69 points higher for creative writing; Qwen3.8 Max scores 16 points higher for vision. Across 7 shared LMArena tasks, Claude Opus 5.5 leads 6 to 1. A medium month (20M input + 5M output tokens) costs $70 on Qwen3.8 Max and $180 on Claude Opus 5.5.
- Pick Qwen3.8 Max if you want the lower bill ($70 vs $180 for a medium month) or you care most about vision (+16).
- Pick Claude Opus 5.5 if you care most about creative writing (+69), agent tasks (+54) and coding (+50).
Medium: 20M input + 5M output tokens a month at list price (short-context rate, no caching or batch discounts).
Marked side is better: lower for prices, higher for context and scores. Bars are scaled to the larger of the two.
| Spec | Qwen3.8 Max | Claude Opus 5.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Price per 1M tokens | ||
| Input | $2 | $4 |
| Cached input | None | $0.20 |
| Output | $6 | $20 |
| Blend 3:1 | $3 | $8 |
| Sample month, medium | $70 | $180 |
| Context | ||
| Context window | 1M tokens | 1M tokens |
| Quality (LMArena, out of 100) | ||
| Coding | 50/100 #10 of 50 | 100/100 #1 of 50 |
| Chat | 28/100 #11 of 51 | 78/100 #2 of 51 |
| Creative writing | 31/100 #9 of 51 | 100/100 #1 of 51 |
| Roleplay and characters | 28/100 #7 of 51 | 37/100 #5 of 51 |
| Reasoning and math | 49/100 #9 of 51 | 64/100 #5 of 51 |
| Vision | 100/100 #1 of 33 | 84/100 #3 of 33 |
| Long documents | Not ranked | Not ranked |
| Cheap bulk and agents | 46/100 #23 of 34 | 100/100 #1 of 34 |
| Details | ||
| Provider | Qwen | Anthropic |
| API model id | qwen3.8-max | claude-opus-5.5 |
| Notes | International (Singapore). Alibaba lists the cache-hit price only in the Model Studio console. | 5-minute cache writes $5. |
| Sources | ||
| Last checked | 2026-10-29 | 2026-10-29 |
| Official pricing | Qwen pricing | Anthropic pricing |
Plans from data checked hourly against each vendor's official pricing page. Vendors state limits in different units, so we quote them as published. Team and enterprise plans are per seat.
API prices in USD per 1M tokens from each provider's official pricing page. Blend 3:1 = (3 x input + output) / 4. Sample month = stated input and output tokens at the list price, no caching. Quality: relative score out of 100 on each LMArena leaderboard (100 = top model we price on that board, n/a = not ranked there), data licensed CC BY 4.0. See how we pick.
Where each one ranks on LMArena
Relative score out of 100 on each leaderboard (100 = the top model we price there), with the rank among the models from our API price table that appear on that board.
- Coding (Code Arena): Qwen3.8 Max #10 of 50 (50/100), Claude Opus 5.5 #1 of 50 (100/100)
- Chat (Text Arena): Qwen3.8 Max #11 of 51 (28/100), Claude Opus 5.5 #2 of 51 (78/100)
- Creative writing (Text Arena creative writing): Qwen3.8 Max #9 of 51 (31/100), Claude Opus 5.5 #1 of 51 (100/100)
- Roleplay and characters (Text Arena multi-turn): Qwen3.8 Max #7 of 51 (28/100), Claude Opus 5.5 #5 of 51 (37/100)
- Reasoning and math (Text Arena math): Qwen3.8 Max #9 of 51 (49/100), Claude Opus 5.5 #5 of 51 (64/100)
- Vision (Vision Arena): Qwen3.8 Max #1 of 33 (100/100), Claude Opus 5.5 #3 of 33 (84/100)
- Long documents (Document Arena): Qwen3.8 Max not ranked, Claude Opus 5.5 not ranked
- Cheap bulk and agents (Agent Arena): Qwen3.8 Max #23 of 34 (46/100), Claude Opus 5.5 #1 of 34 (100/100)
Pricing details from the official pages
Qwen3.8 Max lists $2 input, $6 output per 1M tokens on Qwen pricing. Claude Opus 5.5 lists $4 input, $20 output, $0.20 cached input per 1M tokens on Anthropic pricing. Prices checked 2026-10-29.
- Qwen3.8 Max: International (Singapore). Alibaba lists the cache-hit price only in the Model Studio console.
- Claude Opus 5.5: 5-minute cache writes $5.
Sample monthly bill at list price, no caching: Light (2M input + 0.5M output tokens): $7 vs $18. Medium (20M input + 5M output tokens): $70 vs $180. Heavy (200M input + 50M output tokens): $700 vs $1,800.
FAQ
Is Qwen3.8 Max cheaper than Claude Opus 5.5?
Qwen3.8 Max costs $2 input and $6 output per 1M tokens; Claude Opus 5.5 costs $4 and $20. For a medium month (20M input + 5M output tokens) Qwen3.8 Max is cheaper: $70 vs $180.
Which is better for coding, Qwen3.8 Max or Claude Opus 5.5?
On LMArena's Code Arena Qwen3.8 Max scores 50/100 (#10 of 50) and Claude Opus 5.5 100/100 (#1 of 50), so Claude Opus 5.5 is ahead by 50 points.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3.8 Max: 1M tokens. Claude Opus 5.5: 1M tokens. Both list the same window.
How much do Qwen3.8 Max and Claude Opus 5.5 cost per month?
Light (2M input + 0.5M output tokens): $7 vs $18. Medium (20M input + 5M output tokens): $70 vs $180. Heavy (200M input + 50M output tokens): $700 vs $1,800. Pick your own token counts in the plan vs API calculator.
Where do these numbers come from?
Prices come from each provider's official pricing page, checked daily. Quality is the relative score on the LMArena leaderboard dataset, licensed CC BY 4.0. Where a model is not ranked we show n/a.
Sources
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