Qwen3.8 Max vs GPT-6.1 Sol
Official Qwen and OpenAI API prices and LMArena scores, checked 2026-10-29. Add up to 2 more models to compare 4.
Qwen3.8 Max is cheaper and wins more LMArena tasks.
Same input price ($2 per 1M); Qwen3.8 Max is 1.7x cheaper on output. GPT-6.1 Sol scores 32 points higher for agent tasks; Qwen3.8 Max scores 24 points higher for roleplay. Across 7 shared LMArena tasks, Qwen3.8 Max leads 4 to 3. A medium month (20M input + 5M output tokens) costs $70 on Qwen3.8 Max and $90 on GPT-6.1 Sol.
- Pick Qwen3.8 Max if you want the lower bill ($70 vs $90 for a medium month) or you care most about roleplay (+24), creative writing (+20) and vision (+15).
- Pick GPT-6.1 Sol if you care most about agent tasks (+32), coding (+28) and reasoning and math (+10).
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 | GPT-6.1 Sol |
|---|---|---|
| Price per 1M tokens | ||
| Input | $2 | $2 |
| Cached input | None | $0.10 |
| Output | $6 | $10 |
| Blend 3:1 | $3 | $4 |
| Sample month, medium | $70 | $90 |
| Context | ||
| Context window | 1M tokens | 1.05M tokens |
| Quality (LMArena, out of 100) | ||
| Coding | 50/100 #10 of 50 | 78/100 #4 of 50 |
| Chat | 28/100 #11 of 51 | 26/100 #13 of 51 |
| Creative writing | 31/100 #9 of 51 | 11/100 #14 of 51 |
| Roleplay and characters | 28/100 #7 of 51 | 4/100 #14 of 51 |
| Reasoning and math | 49/100 #9 of 51 | 59/100 #6 of 51 |
| Vision | 100/100 #1 of 33 | 85/100 #2 of 33 |
| Long documents | Not ranked | Not ranked |
| Cheap bulk and agents | 46/100 #23 of 34 | 78/100 #5 of 34 |
| Details | ||
| Provider | Qwen | OpenAI |
| API model id | qwen3.8-max | gpt-6.1-sol |
| Notes | International (Singapore). Alibaba lists the cache-hit price only in the Model Studio console. | Prompts up to 272K. Longer prompts cost $4 in, $15 out. |
| Sources | ||
| Last checked | 2026-10-29 | 2026-10-29 |
| Official pricing | Qwen pricing | OpenAI 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), GPT-6.1 Sol #4 of 50 (78/100)
- Chat (Text Arena): Qwen3.8 Max #11 of 51 (28/100), GPT-6.1 Sol #13 of 51 (26/100)
- Creative writing (Text Arena creative writing): Qwen3.8 Max #9 of 51 (31/100), GPT-6.1 Sol #14 of 51 (11/100)
- Roleplay and characters (Text Arena multi-turn): Qwen3.8 Max #7 of 51 (28/100), GPT-6.1 Sol #14 of 51 (4/100)
- Reasoning and math (Text Arena math): Qwen3.8 Max #9 of 51 (49/100), GPT-6.1 Sol #6 of 51 (59/100)
- Vision (Vision Arena): Qwen3.8 Max #1 of 33 (100/100), GPT-6.1 Sol #2 of 33 (85/100)
- Long documents (Document Arena): Qwen3.8 Max not ranked, GPT-6.1 Sol not ranked
- Cheap bulk and agents (Agent Arena): Qwen3.8 Max #23 of 34 (46/100), GPT-6.1 Sol #5 of 34 (78/100)
Pricing details from the official pages
Qwen3.8 Max lists $2 input, $6 output per 1M tokens on Qwen pricing. GPT-6.1 Sol lists $2 input, $10 output, $0.10 cached input per 1M tokens on OpenAI pricing. Prices checked 2026-10-29.
- Qwen3.8 Max: International (Singapore). Alibaba lists the cache-hit price only in the Model Studio console.
- GPT-6.1 Sol: Prompts up to 272K. Longer prompts cost $4 in, $15 out.
Sample monthly bill at list price, no caching: Light (2M input + 0.5M output tokens): $7 vs $9. Medium (20M input + 5M output tokens): $70 vs $90. Heavy (200M input + 50M output tokens): $700 vs $900.
FAQ
Is Qwen3.8 Max cheaper than GPT-6.1 Sol?
Qwen3.8 Max costs $2 input and $6 output per 1M tokens; GPT-6.1 Sol costs $2 and $10. For a medium month (20M input + 5M output tokens) Qwen3.8 Max is cheaper: $70 vs $90.
Which is better for coding, Qwen3.8 Max or GPT-6.1 Sol?
On LMArena's Code Arena Qwen3.8 Max scores 50/100 (#10 of 50) and GPT-6.1 Sol 78/100 (#4 of 50), so GPT-6.1 Sol is ahead by 28 points.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3.8 Max: 1M tokens. GPT-6.1 Sol: 1.05M tokens. Long prompts can cost more; see the pricing notes above.
How much do Qwen3.8 Max and GPT-6.1 Sol cost per month?
Light (2M input + 0.5M output tokens): $7 vs $9. Medium (20M input + 5M output tokens): $70 vs $90. Heavy (200M input + 50M output tokens): $700 vs $900. 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
Related
- GPT-6 Astra vs GPT-6.1 Sol: cost and Codex limits
- Cheapest LLM APIs, compared
- Qwen API pricing, every model
- OpenAI API pricing, every model
- GPT-6.1 Sol vs Claude Opus 5.5
- GPT-6.1 Sol vs Gemini 4 Argon
- GPT-6.1 Sol vs Claude Sonnet 5.5
- DeepSeek V4 Pro vs GPT-6.1 Sol
- Grok 4.7 vs GPT-6.1 Sol
- Muse Wonder 1.0 vs GPT-6.1 Sol