Which is better, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Qwen 3.8 Max?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher on 4 of 9 shared quality measures, Qwen 3.8 Max on 1. 4 measures are too close to call. Qwen 3.8 Max costs about 25% less than Claude Sonnet 5.5 on a blended price of $3.00 against $4.00 per million tokens. Which one is better for you depends on your task and budget, so test both on your own work.

Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Qwen 3.8 Max?

Qwen 3.8 Max is cheaper on blended price: $4.00 per million tokens for Claude Sonnet 5.5 against $3.00 for Qwen 3.8 Max. For 100 chats of about 1,000 tokens in and 500 tokens back, that is about $0.70 for Claude Sonnet 5.5 and $0.50 for Qwen 3.8 Max.

Which is better for coding, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Qwen 3.8 Max?

On Arena coding rating they are too close to call (1528 and 1524).

AI Rankings

Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Qwen 3.8 Max: Scores, Price and Which to Choose

Side by side on every measure both models share: overall score, human votes, tests, price and context window. Close results are called too close to call.

Data updated 26 Oct 2026

Read the model pages for the full picture: Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Qwen 3.8 Max.

Side by side

A check mark shows the better side on each measure. Scores that are too close to call have no winner.

Claude Sonnet 5.5 compared with Qwen 3.8 MaxClaude Sonnet 5.5 against Qwen 3.8 Max on 11 measures. Claude Sonnet 5.5 is better on 4, Qwen 3.8 Max on 2, 5 are too close to call, 0 have no data for one side.

Claude Sonnet 5.5
Qwen 3.8 Max

Epoch Capabilities IndexClaude Sonnet 5.5 leads
Combined score over many tests. Bar shows where it sits between the lowest and highest score we track.
Claude Sonnet 5.5:
Better: 166.2
Qwen 3.8 Max:
157.4
Arena text ratingToo close to call
Rating from head-to-head votes by people. Bar shows where it sits between the lowest and highest score we track.
Claude Sonnet 5.5:
1478
Qwen 3.8 Max:
1483
Arena coding ratingToo close to call
Rating from head-to-head votes by people. Bar shows where it sits between the lowest and highest score we track.
Claude Sonnet 5.5:
1528
Qwen 3.8 Max:
1524
Arena web development ratingClaude Sonnet 5.5 leads
Rating from head-to-head votes by people. Bar shows where it sits between the lowest and highest score we track.
Claude Sonnet 5.5:
Better: 1769
Qwen 3.8 Max:
1672
Arena vision ratingQwen 3.8 Max leads
Rating from head-to-head votes by people. Bar shows where it sits between the lowest and highest score we track.
Claude Sonnet 5.5:
1265
Qwen 3.8 Max:
Better: 1300
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads
Original, very hard maths problems written by mathematicians.
Claude Sonnet 5.5:
Better: 88.8%
Qwen 3.8 Max:
74.7%
GPQA DiamondClaude Sonnet 5.5 leads
Very hard multiple-choice science questions in biology, physics and chemistry, written by experts and designed so a quick web search does not give the answer.
Claude Sonnet 5.5:
Better: 95.6%
Qwen 3.8 Max:
92.7%
OTIS Mock AIMEToo close to call
Maths competition problems in the style of the US AIME exam, from the 2024 and 2025 sets.
Claude Sonnet 5.5:
100.0%
Qwen 3.8 Max:
99.4%
SimpleQA VerifiedToo close to call
Short factual questions that each have one correct answer.
Claude Sonnet 5.5:
46.5%
Qwen 3.8 Max:
45.8%
Blended price per million tokensQwen 3.8 Max costs less
Blended price: lower is better.
Claude Sonnet 5.5:
$4.00
Qwen 3.8 Max:
Better: $3.00
Context windowToo close to call
How much text it can read at once.
Claude Sonnet 5.5:
1M tokens
Qwen 3.8 Max:
992K tokens

Data updated 26 Oct 2026. Only measures that both models have are shown.

The numbers

Claude Sonnet 5.5 against Qwen 3.8 Max, measure by measure. A check mark shows the better side.
Measure	Claude Sonnet 5.5	Qwen 3.8 Max
Epoch Capabilities Index	166.2	157.4
Arena text ratingToo close to call	1478	1483
Arena coding ratingToo close to call	1528	1524
Arena web development rating	1769	1672
Arena vision rating	1265	1300
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)	88.8%	74.7%
GPQA Diamond	95.6%	92.7%
OTIS Mock AIMEToo close to call	100.0%	99.4%
SimpleQA VerifiedToo close to call	46.5%	45.8%
Blended price per million tokens	$4.00	$3.00
Context windowToo close to call	1M tokens	992K tokens

What it costs in everyday terms

Estimate for 100 chats of about 1,000 tokens in and 500 tokens back, from list prices. Your bill depends on how you use it.

100 chats with Claude Sonnet 5.5: $0.70; Blended price $4.00 per million tokens.
100 chats with Qwen 3.8 Max: $0.50; Blended price $3.00 per million tokens.

Who should pick which

Pick Claude Sonnet 5.5 if these matter most

Epoch Capabilities Index: 166.2 against 157.4
Arena web development rating: 1769 against 1672
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3): 88.8% against 74.7%
GPQA Diamond: 95.6% against 92.7%

Pick Qwen 3.8 Max if these matter most

Arena vision rating: 1300 against 1265
Blended price per million tokens: $3.00 against $4.00

Too close to call: Arena text rating, Arena coding rating, OTIS Mock AIME, SimpleQA Verified, Context window.

Scores come from tests and votes, not from your own work. Try both on a task you care about before you commit.

Go deeper

Claude Sonnet 5.5: full page

Qwen 3.8 Max: full page

Questions about this comparison

Which is better, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Qwen 3.8 Max?: Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher on 4 of 9 shared quality measures, Qwen 3.8 Max on 1. 4 measures are too close to call. Qwen 3.8 Max costs about 25% less than Claude Sonnet 5.5 on a blended price of $3.00 against $4.00 per million tokens. Which one is better for you depends on your task and budget, so test both on your own work.
Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Qwen 3.8 Max?: Qwen 3.8 Max is cheaper on blended price: $4.00 per million tokens for Claude Sonnet 5.5 against $3.00 for Qwen 3.8 Max. For 100 chats of about 1,000 tokens in and 500 tokens back, that is about $0.70 for Claude Sonnet 5.5 and $0.50 for Qwen 3.8 Max.
Which is better for coding, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Qwen 3.8 Max?: On Arena coding rating they are too close to call (1528 and 1524).

Where this data comes from

Epoch AI: Benchmark data: Epoch AI, 'Capabilities & benchmarking', epoch.ai/benchmarks (CC BY 4.0). We match models across sources, rank them and show them in charts. Scores are not changed. Epoch AI does not endorse this site.
Arena (formerly LMArena): Human-preference ratings: Arena (arena.ai) leaderboard dataset, CC BY 4.0. We keep the latest published ratings, match them to models from other sources and rank them. Ratings are not changed. Arena does not endorse this site.
LiteLLM model price list: Prices and context windows: LiteLLM model price list (github.com/BerriAI/litellm, MIT licence). We use the model maker's own price entry when there is one. Prices change often, so always confirm on the maker's site before you buy.

Newest data on this page: 26 Oct 2026. Prices are list prices and change often, so confirm on the maker's site before you buy. Sponsors never change a score or an order. How we calculate this · Report a mistake