High-volume, cost-sensitive work
Choose Qwen3.8 Max Prime
Qwen3.8 Max Prime costs 25% less on a typical mix of three input tokens for every output token ($6.00 against $8.00 per million tokens).
Claude Opus 5.5 vs Qwen3.8 Max Prime: price, context and capabilities
Choose Claude Opus 5.5 for reused prompts and documents (RAG, agents). Choose Qwen3.8 Max Prime for high-volume, cost-sensitive work and writing and code generation.
In short
- Qwen3.8 Max Prime is 25% cheaper than Claude Opus 5.5 at the headline price ($6.00 / 1M tokens vs $8.00 / 1M tokens).
- Both accept 1M tokens per request.
- Only Claude Opus 5.5 offers batch api.
Which should you choose?
Each answer below comes straight from the published prices, specifications and independent benchmark results.
Writing and code generation
Choose Qwen3.8 Max Prime
Qwen3.8 Max Prime charges $12.00 per million output tokens, against $20.00 for Claude Opus 5.5. Output dominates the bill when answers are long.
Reused prompts and documents (RAG, agents)
Choose Claude Opus 5.5
Claude Opus 5.5 charges $0.20 per million cached input tokens, against $0.50 for Qwen3.8 Max Prime.
Monthly cost at three volumes
| Volume | Claude Opus 5.5 | Qwen3.8 Max Prime | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prototype: 1M input, 250K output tokens | $9.00 | $7.00 | Qwen3.8 Max Prime, $2.00 less |
| Production: 20M input, 5M output tokens | $180.00 | $140.00 | Qwen3.8 Max Prime, $40.00 less |
| Scale: 500M input, 100M output tokens | $4,000 | $3,200 | Qwen3.8 Max Prime, $800.00 less |
Standard rates, without caching or batch discounts. Volumes are per month.
Specifications side by side
| Claude Opus 5.5 | Qwen3.8 Max Prime | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | Alibaba Cloud (Qwen) |
| Category | Language models | Language models |
| Status | Generally available | Generally available |
| Headline price | $8.00 / 1M tokens | $6.00 / 1M tokens |
| Input | $4.00 / 1M tokens | $4.00 / 1M tokens |
| Output | $20.00 / 1M tokens | $12.00 / 1M tokens |
| Cached input | $0.20 / 1M tokens | $0.50 / 1M tokens |
| Context window | 1M | 1M |
| Max output | 128k | 131k |
| Released | September 2026 | Sep 23, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | June 2026 | No data |
| Licence | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Capabilities | Vision, Reasoning, Tool calling, Structured output, Prompt caching, Batch API | Vision, Reasoning, Tool calling, Structured output, Prompt caching |
| API model id | claude-opus-5-5 | qwen3.8-max-prime |
Benchmarks side by side
Leader in bold.
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 5.5 | Qwen3.8 Max Prime |
|---|---|---|
| Intelligence Index | 57.6 | No data |
| SciCode | 66.9% | No data |
| Humanity's Last Exam | 61.4% | No data |
| MMMU-Pro (visual reasoning) | 87.7% | No data |
| Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 84.7% | No data |
Independent evaluations by Artificial Analysis, run the same way for every model, at the reasoning setting shown. Percentages unless marked as an index.
Frequently asked questions
Should I choose Claude Opus 5.5 or Qwen3.8 Max Prime?
Choose Claude Opus 5.5 for reused prompts and documents (RAG, agents). Choose Qwen3.8 Max Prime for high-volume, cost-sensitive work and writing and code generation.
Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 5.5 or Qwen3.8 Max Prime?
Qwen3.8 Max Prime is 25% cheaper than Claude Opus 5.5 at the headline price ($6.00 / 1M tokens vs $8.00 / 1M tokens).
Which has the larger context window, Claude Opus 5.5 or Qwen3.8 Max Prime?
Both accept 1M tokens per request.
What is the difference between Claude Opus 5.5 and Qwen3.8 Max Prime?
Claude Opus 5.5 is made by Anthropic and Qwen3.8 Max Prime by Alibaba Cloud (Qwen). Qwen3.8 Max Prime is 25% cheaper than Claude Opus 5.5 at the headline price ($6.00 / 1M tokens vs $8.00 / 1M tokens). Both accept 1M tokens per request. Only Claude Opus 5.5 offers batch api.
How much do Claude Opus 5.5 and Qwen3.8 Max Prime cost per month?
At 20 million input and 5 million output tokens a month, Claude Opus 5.5 costs $180.00 and Qwen3.8 Max Prime costs $140.00, at standard rates.