Model Comparison
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B vs Claude Opus 4.8Which is better in 2026?
Claude Opus 4.8 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is 7.4x cheaper per token.
Verdict: Qwen3.5-397B-A17B vs Claude Opus 4.8 — which is better?
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B (by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team) and Claude Opus 4.8 (by Anthropic) are two of the AI models people compare most. Here is how they stack up on benchmarks, price and capabilities, and which one to pick in 2026.
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Claude Opus 4.8 is better at 8 benchmarks (BrowseComp, GPQA, Humanity's Last Exam, Include, SWE-bench Multilingual, SWE-Bench Verified, Terminal-Bench 2.0, Toolathlon). Claude Opus 4.8 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
On price, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is roughly 7.4x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Claude Opus 4.8 also accepts a larger context window (1,000,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Choose Qwen3.5-397B-A17B if…
- cost matters — it's about 7.4x cheaper per token
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
Choose Claude Opus 4.8 if…
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 8 of 8 shared benchmarks
- you process long inputs — it offers a 1,000,000 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped May 2026
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Claude Opus 4.8 is better at 8 benchmarks (BrowseComp, GPQA, Humanity's Last Exam, Include, SWE-bench Multilingual, SWE-Bench Verified, Terminal-Bench 2.0, Toolathlon).
Claude Opus 4.8 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Human preference votes
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B ($0.60/1M tokens) is 8.3x cheaper than Claude Opus 4.8 ($5.00/1M tokens).
For output processing, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B ($3.60/1M tokens) is 6.9x cheaper than Claude Opus 4.8 ($25.00/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Claude Opus 4.8 is more expensive than Qwen3.5-397B-A17B.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Claude Opus 4.8 accepts 1,000,000 input tokens compared to Qwen3.5-397B-A17B's 262,144 tokens. Claude Opus 4.8 can generate longer responses up to 128,000 tokens, while Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is limited to 64,000 tokens.
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Both Qwen3.5-397B-A17B and Claude Opus 4.8 support multimodal inputs.
They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B
Claude Opus 4.8
License
Usage and distribution terms
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is licensed under Apache 2.0, while Claude Opus 4.8 uses a proprietary license.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Proprietary
Closed source
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B was released on 2026-02-16, while Claude Opus 4.8 was released on 2026-05-28.
Claude Opus 4.8 is 3 months newer than Qwen3.5-397B-A17B.
Feb 16, 2026
3 months ago
May 28, 2026
2 weeks ago
3mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is available from Novita. Claude Opus 4.8 is available from Anthropic, Vertex AI.
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B
Claude Opus 4.8
Outputs Comparison
Key Takeaways
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B
View detailsAlibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Claude Opus 4.8
View detailsAnthropic
Detailed Comparison
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FAQ
Common questions about Qwen3.5-397B-A17B vs Claude Opus 4.8.