Claude 3 Opus vs Qwen3 235B A22B
Qwen3 235B A22B leads the LLM Stats Score 15.6 to 9.9. Qwen3 235B A22B is 300.0x cheaper per token.
Anthropic · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Qwen3 235B A22B leads the overall LLM Stats Score 15.6 to 9.9, ranking #229 overall.
In the 6 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Claude 3 Opus wins 4; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
On price, Qwen3 235B A22B is roughly 300.0x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Claude 3 Opus also accepts a larger context window (200,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Claude 3 Opus
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 4 of 6 exact shared results
- you process long inputs — it offers a 200,000 token context window
Choose Qwen3 235B A22B
- overall performance matters — it scores 15.6 and ranks #229 on LLM Stats
- your work emphasizes reasoning — it leads those capability indexes
- cost matters — it's about 300.0x cheaper per token
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Apr 2025
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
11 reported for Claude 3 Opus · 23 for Qwen3 235B A22B
Claude 3 Opus outperforms in 4 benchmarks (GPQA, GSM8k, MGSM, MMLU-Pro), while Qwen3 235B A22B is better at 2 benchmarks (MATH, MMLU).
Claude 3 Opus shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Claude 3 Opus ($15.00/1M tokens) is 150.0x more expensive than Qwen3 235B A22B ($0.10/1M tokens).
For output processing, Claude 3 Opus ($75.00/1M tokens) is 750.0x more expensive than Qwen3 235B A22B ($0.10/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Claude 3 Opus is more expensive than Qwen3 235B A22B.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Claude 3 Opus accepts 200,000 input tokens compared to Qwen3 235B A22B's 128,000 tokens. Claude 3 Opus can generate longer responses up to 200,000 tokens, while Qwen3 235B A22B is limited to 128,000 tokens.
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Claude 3 Opus supports multimodal inputs, whereas Qwen3 235B A22B does not.
Claude 3 Opus can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Claude 3 Opus
Qwen3 235B A22B
License
Usage and distribution terms
Claude 3 Opus is licensed under a proprietary license, while Qwen3 235B A22B uses Apache 2.0.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Proprietary
Closed source
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Claude 3 Opus was released on 2024-02-29, while Qwen3 235B A22B was released on 2025-04-29.
Qwen3 235B A22B is 14 months newer than Claude 3 Opus.
Feb 29, 2024
2.6 years ago
Apr 29, 2025
1.4 years ago
1.2yr newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
Claude 3 Opus is available from Anthropic, Bedrock, Google. Qwen3 235B A22B is available from Fireworks, DeepInfra, Novita, Together.
Claude 3 Opus
Qwen3 235B A22B
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Claude 3 Opus and Qwen3 235B A22B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Claude 3 Opus vs Qwen3 235B A22B.