Claude Opus 4 vs Qwen3 Max
Claude Opus 4 and Qwen3 Max are closely matched at 27.8 and 21.7 on the LLM Stats Score. Qwen3 Max is 18.5x cheaper per token.
Anthropic · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Claude Opus 4 and Qwen3 Max are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 27.8 and 21.7.
In the 3 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Claude Opus 4 wins 2; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
On price, Qwen3 Max is roughly 18.5x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Qwen3 Max also accepts a larger context window (256,000 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 Opus 4
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 2 of 3 exact shared results
Choose Qwen3 Max
- cost matters — it's about 18.5x cheaper per token
- you process long inputs — it offers a 256,000 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Dec 2025
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
9 reported for Claude Opus 4 · 6 for Qwen3 Max
Claude Opus 4 outperforms in 2 benchmarks (GPQA, SWE-Bench Verified), while Qwen3 Max is better at 1 benchmark (AIME 2025).
Claude Opus 4 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 Opus 4 ($15.00/1M tokens) is 30.0x more expensive than Qwen3 Max ($0.50/1M tokens).
For output processing, Claude Opus 4 ($75.00/1M tokens) is 15.0x more expensive than Qwen3 Max ($5.00/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Claude Opus 4 is more expensive than Qwen3 Max.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Qwen3 Max accepts 256,000 input tokens compared to Claude Opus 4's 200,000 tokens. Qwen3 Max can generate longer responses up to 131,072 tokens, while Claude Opus 4 is limited to 32,000 tokens.
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Claude Opus 4 supports multimodal inputs, whereas Qwen3 Max does not.
Claude Opus 4 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Claude Opus 4
Qwen3 Max
License
Usage and distribution terms
Both models are licensed under proprietary licenses.
Both models have usage restrictions defined by their respective organizations.
Proprietary
Closed source
Proprietary
Closed source
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Claude Opus 4 was released on 2025-05-22, while Qwen3 Max was released on 2025-12-15.
Qwen3 Max is 7 months newer than Claude Opus 4.
May 22, 2025
1.3 years ago
Dec 15, 2025
8 months ago
6mo 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 Opus 4 is available from Anthropic, Bedrock, Google. Qwen3 Max is available from Novita.
Claude Opus 4
Qwen3 Max
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Claude Opus 4 and Qwen3 Max side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Claude Opus 4 vs Qwen3 Max.