Claude Opus 5.5 vs Qwen3.8 Max: Specs & Benchmark Comparison
Claude Opus 5.5 is developed by Anthropic, while Qwen3.8 Max comes from Alibaba. Qwen3.8 Max was released in August 2026, and Claude Opus 5.5 followed a month later in September 2026. Qwen3.8 Max has a published size of about 2.4 trillion parameters; Anthropic has not disclosed the parameter count of Claude Opus 5.5.
The two models share 5 published benchmarks. Claude Opus 5.5 leads on 5 of them. The widest gaps are on SWE-Bench Pro, where Claude Opus 5.5 scores 89.9% against 67.7%; DeepSWE 1.1, where Claude Opus 5.5 scores 74.2% against 56.6%. Averaged across everything we track, Claude Opus 5.5 sits at 71.1% and Qwen3.8 Max at 71.0%.
Qwen3.8 Max is the cheaper API at $2.50 per million input tokens and $6.25 per million output tokens, about 60% below Claude Opus 5.5 at $4 and $20. Both accept a context window of about 1M tokens. Both accept text and images as input.
| Characteristic | Claude Opus 5.5 | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Anthropic | Alibaba |
| Release Date | September 22, 2026 | August 2, 2026 |
| Parameters | — | 2.4T |
| Multimodal | Yes | Yes |
| Context (input) | 1.0M | 1.0M |
| Context (output) | 128K | 131K |
| Input Price / 1M | $4.00 | $2.50 |
| Output Price / 1M | $20.00 | $6.25 |
| Average Score | 71.1% | 71.0% |
| Benchmarks | ||
| SWE-Bench Pro | 89.9% | 67.7% |
| DeepSWE 1.1 | 74.2% | 56.6% |
| AutomationBench | 40.0% | 27.3% |
| Humanity's Last Exam (with tools, text-only) | 67.7% | 56.2% |
| HealthBench | 60.6% | 60.2% |
Visual Benchmark Comparison
Verdict
Both models show equal results — the choice depends on your specific use case.
Both models show comparable average scores: Claude Opus 5.5 — 0.7, Qwen3.8 Max — 0.7.
Qwen3.8 Max is 2.7x cheaper: input $2.50/1M vs $4.00/1M tokens.
Same context size: 1M tokens.
Claude Opus 5.5 is newer: released 9/22/2026 vs 8/2/2026.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better for coding — Claude Opus 5.5 or Qwen3.8 Max?
Which model is cheaper — Claude Opus 5.5 or Qwen3.8 Max?
Which has a larger context window — Claude Opus 5.5 or Qwen3.8 Max?
The Claude Opus 5.5 and Qwen3.8 Max comparison is updated for 2026. Data includes benchmark results, API pricing, context window size and other specifications. For more detailed information, visit the Claude Opus 5.5 or Qwen3.8 Max page. See also the complete list of AI model comparisons.