Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Qwen3.8-Flash-Next
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Qwen3.8-Flash-Next by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) scores 17.8 points higher (57.6 vs 39.8) but costs 24× as much to run the benchmark ($8708 vs $363; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) when you need intelligence above 39.8, and Qwen3.8-Flash-Next when 39.8 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | Qwen3.8-Flash-Next | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 57.6 | 39.8 | −30.9% Qwen3.8-Flash-Next is 30.9% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $8,708.20 | $362.72 | −95.8% Qwen3.8-Flash-Next is 95.8% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 626.13s | 50.57s | −91.9% Qwen3.8-Flash-Next is 91.9% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $0.15 / $0.47 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.8-Flash-Next vs Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback): 30.9% less intelligence, 95.8% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 91.9% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
- Qwen3.8-Flash-Next is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)Qwen3.8-Flash-NextToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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