Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) vs Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Qwen3.8 Max (0902) by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Clear winner
Verdict
Pick Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback)
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) vs Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback): 18.9% less intelligence, 21.6% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 48.6% faster end-to-end.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 56.0 | 45.4 | −18.9% Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is 18.9% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $4,056.65 | $4,934.79 | +21.6% Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is 21.6% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 123.06s | 63.23s | −48.6% Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is 48.6% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
- Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback)Qwen3.8 Max (0902)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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