Qwen3 Max vs Claude Opus 5.5
Benchmarks, API Token Pricing, Context Window & Speed Comparison
Related topics (4)
Compare Qwen3 Max by Alibaba against Claude Opus 5.5 by Anthropic across real-world coding, reasoning, token economics, and latency.
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Qwen3 Max
Agent FlagshipAlibaba's late-2025 general frontier flagship featuring advanced autonomous agent execution, deep STEM logic, and expansive tool orchestrations.
$2.00 / 1M
$6.00 / 1M
262.1K tokens
62.5%
Claude Opus 5.5
Frontier Intelligence TitanAnthropic's most intelligent model for complex reasoning, research, and strategic analysis.
$4.00 / 1M
$20.00 / 1M
1M tokens
84.6%
Key Differences at a Glance
- Qwen3 Max is 2.7x cheaper for API usage (input + output tokens combined).
- Claude Opus 5.5 has a larger context window (1M vs 262K tokens).
- Claude Opus 5.5 is faster at 78 tok/s vs 72 tok/s.
- Claude Opus 5.5 leads on SWE-bench coding (84.6% vs 62.5%).
| Feature | Qwen3 Max | Claude Opus 5.5 |
|---|---|---|
Intelligence Index Composite reasoning & knowledge score (0-100) | 88 | 94 |
Provider | Alibaba | Anthropic |
Input Price Cost per million input tokens | $2.00 / 1M | $4.00 / 1M |
Output Price Cost per million output tokens | $6.00 / 1M | $20.00 / 1M |
Blended Price Weighted 7:2:1 cache:input:output per 1M | $1.28 / 1M | $3.08 / 1M |
Context Window Maximum input + output tokens | 262.1K tokens~393 A4 pages of text | 1M tokens~1,500 A4 pages of text |
Max Output Tokens Per single request | 16K | 128K |
Throughput Speed Tokens generated per second | 72 tok/s | 78 tok/s |
SWE-bench Verified Real-world software engineering | 62.5% | 84.6% |
GPQA Diamond Graduate-level reasoning | 71.2% | 82.3% |
Cached Input Price Prompt caching discount per 1M tokens | $0.40 / 1M | $0.40 / 1M |
Who Wins Where?
At-a-glance decision frameworkEmpirical Head-to-Head Benchmark Scores
Official evaluation metrics verified by independent third-party research labs.
Industry benchmark evaluating real-world GitHub issue resolution and multi-file debugging.
Challenging questions created by domain experts to test complex PhD-level reasoning.
Hardened reasoning and academic knowledge benchmark with reduced lucky-guess probability.
Crowdsourced human preference evaluation based on blind, head-to-head model battles.
Extremely difficult, closed-ended questions spanning the frontier of human expert knowledge.
Autonomous multi-step tasks executed inside a real command-line terminal environment.
Research-grade coding problems drawn from real scientific and numerical workloads.
Contamination-free competitive programming problems collected continuously over time.
American Invitational Mathematics Examination — multi-step Olympiad-level reasoning.
Accuracy when reasoning over very large inputs that fill the model context window.
Tokens emitted per second during active generation streaming.
Latency & Response Time
Time to first token (TTFT) and estimated end-to-end response time for a typical 500-token response.
Real-Time Interactive Token Cost Simulator
Adjust sliders to calculate projected monthly cloud API spending with prompt caching discounts.
Qwen3 Max · Strengths & Key Advantages
- Exceptional performance on coding, competitive math, and reasoning benchmarks
- Advanced autonomous tool usage and multi-step plan generation
- Deep multilingual proficiency across both Asian and European languages
Considerations & Trade-offs
- Text-only API at launch; visual queries require pairing with Qwen3-VL
- Context window is 262K compared to 1M on the Plus tier
Claude Opus 5.5 · Strengths & Key Advantages
- Unmatched autonomous multi-step agentic coding and refactoring
- Flawless multi-document reasoning over 1M token context with no long-prompt surcharge
- Highest composite Intelligence Index score measured (94/100), leading SWE-bench Verified at 84.6%
- Precise tool execution with robust error-recovery loops
Considerations & Trade-offs
- Premium output pricing ($20.00/M) plus heavy reasoning-token usage (~68K output tokens per complex task) keeps long agentic runs expensive
- Long thinking times at maximum effort can push a single hard agentic task toward ~$3.85+
Token Use & Task Economics
Estimated cost and token consumption to complete one representative agentic task.
| Metric | Qwen3 Max | Claude Opus 5.5 |
|---|---|---|
Cost per Task Estimated USD to finish one task | $0.28 | $3.85 |
Output Tokens / Task Tokens generated per task | 25K | 68K |
Reasoning Tokens / Task Thinking tokens burned per task | 10K | 42K |
Technical Specifications
Architecture, release timeline, capabilities, and modalities.
| Feature | Qwen3 Max | Claude Opus 5.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Official API Model ID (SDK) | qwen3-max-instruct | claude-opus-5-5-20260901 |
| API Protocol | Alibaba REST API (OpenAI-Compatible) | Anthropic Messages API + AWS Bedrock + Vertex AI |
| Release Date | 2025-09 | 2026-09 |
| Knowledge Cutoff | July 2025 | June 2026 |
| Architecture | Advanced Dense/MoE Hybrid Frontier Transformer | Extended Autonomous Hybrid Reasoning Transformer |
| Parameters | Confidential | Confidential |
| Enterprise Rate Limits (RPM / TPM) | 5,000 – 15,000 RPM (Production Tier) · 800,000 – 2,000,000 TPM | 4,000 – 10,000 RPM (Tier 4 + Priority Tier) · 4,000,000 – 10,000,000 TPM |
| Long-Context Tier (>128K/200K) | Flat rate ($2/1M in) across full 262K window | Standard rate up to 200K tokens; 2x input/output tier above 200K tokens |
| Prompt Cache Policy & TTL | Cached input at $0.4/1M tokens | $0.4/1M cached read (90% off); 5-min default & 1-hour extended TTL |
| Computer Use / GUI Agent | API / CLI Tool-Use & DOM Agent ready (no raw pixel desktop click loop) | Supported (Screen coordinate grounding, browser & desktop GUI action loops) |
| MCP & Parallel Tool Calling | Native MCP Client/Server ready · Parallel function calling · 100% Strict JSON Schema | Native MCP Client/Server ready · Parallel function calling · 100% Strict JSON Schema |
| Web Search Grounding & Sandbox | Supported via external Tavily/Exa Search & E2B/Docker Sandbox tools | Native Web Search Citations + Code Execution Tool + MCP Connectors |
| Official Fine-Tuning Support | API Prompt Engineering & RAG Distillation | Custom Model Tuning via Amazon Bedrock & Prompt Distillation |
| Multimodal Token Billing | Text BPE (~4 chars/token) | Text BPE (~4 chars/token) · Vision (~258–765 tokens per image tile) |
| Quantization & Min GPU VRAM | Cloud-Hosted Proprietary (FP8 / BF16 Tensor Core Cluster) · Zero Local VRAM Required (100% Serverless Cloud API) | Cloud-Hosted Proprietary (FP8 / BF16 Tensor Core Cluster) · Zero Local VRAM Required (100% Serverless Cloud API) |
| Safety & Frontier Classification | Alibaba Production Safety & Alignment Verified | Anthropic RSP ASL-2 / ASL-3 Constitutional Safety Evaluated |
| Enterprise Compliance (ZDR/HIPAA/SOC2) | SOC2 Type II · GDPR · Zero Data Retention (ZDR) & HIPAA BAA Available on Enterprise Tier | SOC2 Type II · GDPR · Zero Data Retention (ZDR) & HIPAA BAA Available on Enterprise Tier |
| Input Modalities | text | text, vision |
| Output Modalities | text | text |
Qwen3 Max vs Claude Opus 5.5: Quick Answers
Which is more intelligent, Qwen3 Max or Claude Opus 5.5?
Claude Opus 5.5 is more intelligent. It scores 94 compared with 88 on the composite Intelligence Index.
Which model is faster?
Claude Opus 5.5 is faster, generating 78 tokens per second compared with 72 tokens per second.
Which model is cheaper to run?
Qwen3 Max is cheaper at $1.28 per 1M tokens blended, compared with $3.08 (7:2:1 cache:input:output ratio).
Which model has lower latency?
Qwen3 Max has lower latency, with a time to first token of 0.59s compared with 1.40s.
Which model has a larger context window?
Claude Opus 5.5 has a larger context window, supporting 1M tokens compared with 262.1K tokens.
Verdict
Choose Qwen3 Max for complex multi-turn agents, enterprise strategic planning, and automated stem research, or choose Claude Opus 5.5 for large-scale software development agents, enterprise codebases, and mission-critical scientific synthesis.
Frequently asked questions
Which is cheaper: Qwen3 Max or Claude Opus 5.5?+
Qwen3 Max costs $2/1M input and $6/1M output tokens, while Claude Opus 5.5 costs $4/1M input and $20/1M output tokens.
Which model has a larger context window: Qwen3 Max or Claude Opus 5.5?+
Qwen3 Max supports 262K tokens whereas Claude Opus 5.5 supports 1M tokens.
Understand key metrics like context window, token pricing, reasoning mode, and SWE-bench scores in our comprehensive AI glossary.
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Benchmark scores, token prices, and rate limits evolve rapidly as AI labs release model updates. Always verify current specifications and pricing on the official provider documentation.
Sources: Alibaba & Anthropic Official Documentation