High-volume, cost-sensitive work
Choose GPT-5.6 Terra
GPT-5.6 Terra costs 25% less on a typical mix of three input tokens for every output token ($4.50 against $6.00 per million tokens).
GPT-5.6 Terra vs Qwen3.8 Max Prime: price, context and capabilities
Choose GPT-5.6 Terra for high-volume, cost-sensitive work and reused prompts and documents (RAG, agents). Choose Qwen3.8 Max Prime for the latest release.
In short
- GPT-5.6 Terra is 25% cheaper than Qwen3.8 Max Prime at the headline price ($4.50 / 1M tokens vs $6.00 / 1M tokens).
- GPT-5.6 Terra reads more per request: 1.05M tokens against 1M.
- Qwen3.8 Max Prime is the newer model (Sep 23, 2026, against Jul 9, 2026).
- Only GPT-5.6 Terra 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 GPT-5.6 Terra
GPT-5.6 Terra 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 Jul 9, 2026 for GPT-5.6 Terra).
Monthly cost at three volumes
| Volume | GPT-5.6 Terra | Qwen3.8 Max Prime | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prototype: 1M input, 250K output tokens | $5.00 | $7.00 | GPT-5.6 Terra, $2.00 less |
| Production: 20M input, 5M output tokens | $100.00 | $140.00 | GPT-5.6 Terra, $40.00 less |
| Scale: 500M input, 100M output tokens | $2,200 | $3,200 | GPT-5.6 Terra, $1,000 less |
Standard rates, without caching or batch discounts. Volumes are per month.
Specifications side by side
| GPT-5.6 Terra | Qwen3.8 Max Prime | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | OpenAI | Alibaba Cloud (Qwen) |
| Category | Language models | Language models |
| Status | Generally available | 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 | 128k | 131k |
| Released | Jul 9, 2026 | Sep 23, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | February 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 | gpt-5.6-terra | qwen3.8-max-prime |
Benchmarks side by side
Leader in bold.
| Benchmark | GPT-5.6 Terra | Qwen3.8 Max Prime |
|---|---|---|
| Intelligence Index | 42.1 | No data |
| Terminal-Bench Hard | 57.6% | No data |
| SciCode | 55% | No data |
| GPQA Diamond | 92.5% | No data |
| Humanity's Last Exam | 42.9% | No data |
| IFBench (instruction following) | 71.2% | No data |
| τ²-Bench (agentic tool use) | 86.3% | No data |
| MMMU-Pro (visual reasoning) | 80.7% | No data |
| Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 83% | 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 GPT-5.6 Terra or Qwen3.8 Max Prime?
Choose GPT-5.6 Terra 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, GPT-5.6 Terra or Qwen3.8 Max Prime?
GPT-5.6 Terra 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, GPT-5.6 Terra or Qwen3.8 Max Prime?
GPT-5.6 Terra reads more per request: 1.05M tokens against 1M.
What is the difference between GPT-5.6 Terra and Qwen3.8 Max Prime?
GPT-5.6 Terra is made by OpenAI and Qwen3.8 Max Prime by Alibaba Cloud (Qwen). GPT-5.6 Terra is 25% cheaper than Qwen3.8 Max Prime at the headline price ($4.50 / 1M tokens vs $6.00 / 1M tokens). GPT-5.6 Terra reads more per request: 1.05M tokens against 1M. Qwen3.8 Max Prime is the newer model (Sep 23, 2026, against Jul 9, 2026). Only GPT-5.6 Terra offers batch api.
How much do GPT-5.6 Terra and Qwen3.8 Max Prime cost per month?
At 20 million input and 5 million output tokens a month, GPT-5.6 Terra costs $100.00 and Qwen3.8 Max Prime costs $140.00, at standard rates.
Which is newer, GPT-5.6 Terra or Qwen3.8 Max Prime?
Qwen3.8 Max Prime was released on Sep 23, 2026 and GPT-5.6 Terra on Jul 9, 2026.