Claude Opus 4.1 vs Qwen3 235B A22B
Claude Opus 4.1 shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks. Qwen3 235B A22B is 300.0x cheaper per token.
Anthropic · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Claude Opus 4.1 outperforms in 2 benchmarks (GPQA, MMMLU), while Qwen3 235B A22B is better at 1 benchmark (AIME 2025). Claude Opus 4.1 shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
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 Opus 4.1 also accepts a larger context window (200,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Claude Opus 4.1
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 2 of 3 shared benchmarks
- you process long inputs — it offers a 200,000 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Aug 2025
Choose Qwen3 235B A22B
- cost matters — it's about 300.0x cheaper per token
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Claude Opus 4.1 outperforms in 2 benchmarks (GPQA, MMMLU), while Qwen3 235B A22B is better at 1 benchmark (AIME 2025).
Claude Opus 4.1 shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Playground indexes and blind preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Claude Opus 4.1 ($15.00/1M tokens) is 150.0x more expensive than Qwen3 235B A22B ($0.10/1M tokens).
For output processing, Claude Opus 4.1 ($75.00/1M tokens) is 750.0x more expensive than Qwen3 235B A22B ($0.10/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Claude Opus 4.1 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 Opus 4.1 accepts 200,000 input tokens compared to Qwen3 235B A22B's 128,000 tokens. Qwen3 235B A22B can generate longer responses up to 128,000 tokens, while Claude Opus 4.1 is limited to 32,000 tokens.
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Claude Opus 4.1 supports multimodal inputs, whereas Qwen3 235B A22B does not.
Claude Opus 4.1 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Claude Opus 4.1
Qwen3 235B A22B
License
Usage and distribution terms
Claude Opus 4.1 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 Opus 4.1 was released on 2025-08-05, while Qwen3 235B A22B was released on 2025-04-29.
Claude Opus 4.1 is 3 months newer than Qwen3 235B A22B.
Aug 5, 2025
1.1 years ago
3mo newerApr 29, 2025
1.3 years ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
Claude Opus 4.1 is available from Anthropic, Bedrock, Google. Qwen3 235B A22B is available from Fireworks, DeepInfra, Novita, Together.
Claude Opus 4.1
Qwen3 235B A22B
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Claude Opus 4.1 and Qwen3 235B A22B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Claude Opus 4.1 vs Qwen3 235B A22B.