Claude Opus 5 (Max) vs Qwen3.8-Flash-Next
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5 (Max) by Anthropic or Qwen3.8-Flash-Next by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Opus 5 (Max) scores 11.0 points higher (50.8 vs 39.8) but costs 20× as much to run the benchmark ($7275 vs $363; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Opus 5 (Max) when you need intelligence above 39.8, and Qwen3.8-Flash-Next when 39.8 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 5 (Max) | Qwen3.8-Flash-Next | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 50.8 | 39.8 | −21.7% Qwen3.8-Flash-Next is 21.7% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $7,274.74 | $362.72 | −95.0% Qwen3.8-Flash-Next is 95.0% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 63.34s | 50.52s | −20.2% Qwen3.8-Flash-Next is 20.2% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $5.00 / $25.0 | $0.15 / $0.47 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.8-Flash-Next vs Claude Opus 5 (Max): 21.7% less intelligence, 95.0% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 20.2% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Opus 5 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
- 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 (Max)Qwen3.8-Flash-NextToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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