Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) vs Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) by Anthropic or Qwen3.8 Max (0902) by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Clear winner
Verdict
Pick Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) vs Claude Sonnet 5 (Max): 18.8% more intelligence, 29.5% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 64.5% faster end-to-end.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 38.2 | 45.4 | +18.8% Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is 18.8% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $6,998.25 | $4,934.79 | −29.5% Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is 29.5% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 184.22s | 65.39s | −64.5% Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is 64.5% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 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 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 Sonnet 5 (Max)Qwen3.8 Max (0902)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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