High-volume, cost-sensitive work
Choose Gemini 3.1 Pro
Gemini 3.1 Pro costs 25% less on a typical mix of three input tokens for every output token ($4.50 against $6.00 per million tokens).
Gemini 3.1 Pro vs Qwen3.8 Max Prime: price, context and capabilities
Choose Gemini 3.1 Pro for high-volume, cost-sensitive work and reused prompts and documents (RAG, agents). Choose Qwen3.8 Max Prime for the latest release.
In short
- Gemini 3.1 Pro is 25% cheaper than Qwen3.8 Max Prime at the headline price ($4.50 / 1M tokens vs $6.00 / 1M tokens).
- Gemini 3.1 Pro reads more per request: 1.05M tokens against 1M.
- Qwen3.8 Max Prime is the newer model (Sep 23, 2026, against February 2026).
- Only Gemini 3.1 Pro offers batch api.
Which should you choose?
Each answer below comes straight from the published prices, specifications and independent benchmark results.
Reused prompts and documents (RAG, agents)
Choose Gemini 3.1 Pro
Gemini 3.1 Pro charges $0.20 per million cached input tokens, against $0.50 for Qwen3.8 Max Prime.
Latest release
Choose Qwen3.8 Max Prime
Qwen3.8 Max Prime is the newer release (Sep 23, 2026, against February 2026 for Gemini 3.1 Pro).
Monthly cost at three volumes
| Volume | Gemini 3.1 Pro | Qwen3.8 Max Prime | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prototype: 1M input, 250K output tokens | $5.00 | $7.00 | Gemini 3.1 Pro, $2.00 less |
| Production: 20M input, 5M output tokens | $100.00 | $140.00 | Gemini 3.1 Pro, $40.00 less |
| Scale: 500M input, 100M output tokens | $2,200 | $3,200 | Gemini 3.1 Pro, $1,000 less |
Standard rates, without caching or batch discounts. Volumes are per month.
Specifications side by side
| Gemini 3.1 Pro | Qwen3.8 Max Prime | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba Cloud (Qwen) | |
| Category | Language models | Language models |
| Status | Preview | Generally available |
| Headline price | $4.50 / 1M tokens | $6.00 / 1M tokens |
| Input | $2.00 / 1M tokens | $4.00 / 1M tokens |
| Output | $12.00 / 1M tokens | $12.00 / 1M tokens |
| Cached input | $0.20 / 1M tokens | $0.50 / 1M tokens |
| Context window | 1.05M | 1M |
| Max output | 66k | 131k |
| Released | February 2026 | Sep 23, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | No data | 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 | gemini-3.1-pro-preview | qwen3.8-max-prime |
Benchmarks side by side
Leader in bold.
| Benchmark | Gemini 3.1 Pro | Qwen3.8 Max Prime |
|---|---|---|
| Intelligence Index | 29.7 | No data |
| Terminal-Bench Hard | 53.8% | No data |
| SciCode | 58.7% | No data |
| GPQA Diamond | 94.1% | No data |
| Humanity's Last Exam | 47% | No data |
| IFBench (instruction following) | 77.1% | No data |
| τ²-Bench (agentic tool use) | 95.6% | No data |
| MMMU-Pro (visual reasoning) | 82.4% | No data |
| Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 82% | 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 Gemini 3.1 Pro or Qwen3.8 Max Prime?
Choose Gemini 3.1 Pro for high-volume, cost-sensitive work and reused prompts and documents (RAG, agents). Choose Qwen3.8 Max Prime for the latest release.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.1 Pro or Qwen3.8 Max Prime?
Gemini 3.1 Pro is 25% cheaper than Qwen3.8 Max Prime at the headline price ($4.50 / 1M tokens vs $6.00 / 1M tokens).
Which has the larger context window, Gemini 3.1 Pro or Qwen3.8 Max Prime?
Gemini 3.1 Pro reads more per request: 1.05M tokens against 1M.
What is the difference between Gemini 3.1 Pro and Qwen3.8 Max Prime?
Gemini 3.1 Pro is made by Google and Qwen3.8 Max Prime by Alibaba Cloud (Qwen). Gemini 3.1 Pro is 25% cheaper than Qwen3.8 Max Prime at the headline price ($4.50 / 1M tokens vs $6.00 / 1M tokens). Gemini 3.1 Pro reads more per request: 1.05M tokens against 1M. Qwen3.8 Max Prime is the newer model (Sep 23, 2026, against February 2026). Only Gemini 3.1 Pro offers batch api.
How much do Gemini 3.1 Pro and Qwen3.8 Max Prime cost per month?
At 20 million input and 5 million output tokens a month, Gemini 3.1 Pro costs $100.00 and Qwen3.8 Max Prime costs $140.00, at standard rates.
Which is newer, Gemini 3.1 Pro or Qwen3.8 Max Prime?
Qwen3.8 Max Prime was released on Sep 23, 2026 and Gemini 3.1 Pro on February 2026.