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Model comparison

GPT-5.6 Sol vs Qwen 3.8 Max

OpenAI against Qwen, compared on context, price, and attributed benchmark results.

Recorded profile verification October 2, 2026Individual provider fields may changeEvidence confidence: Medium — see receipts below

OpenAI

GPT-5.6 Sol

Frontier

vs

Qwen

Qwen 3.8 Max

Frontier

AI model capability comparison
SpecificationGPT-5.6 SolQwen 3.8 Max
ProviderOpenAIQwen
TierFrontierFrontier
Context windowWinner: 1.05M1M
Max output128KWinner: 131K
Input / 1M tokens$4Winner: $2
Output / 1M tokens$20Winner: $6
WeightsClosedClosed
ParametersNot verifiedUnverified2.4T total (MoE; managed active count not verified)
Reasoning levelsnone, low, medium, high, xhigh, maxlow, medium, xhigh
Modalitiestext, imagetext, image, video
API model idgpt-5.6-solqwen3.8-max
ReleasedJuly 9, 2026August 3, 2026
Terminal-Bench 2.1 · source date GPT-5.6 Sol: 2026-07-0988.8Not verifiedUnverified
Terminal-Bench 2.1 · source date Qwen 3.8 Max: 2026-10-01Not verifiedUnverified86.6
GPQA Diamond · source date GPT-5.6 Sol: 2026-07-0994.6Not verifiedUnverified
GPQA Diamond · source date Qwen 3.8 Max: 2026-10-01Not verifiedUnverified92.6
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index · source date Qwen 3.8 Max: 2026-10-01Not verifiedUnverified45
Humanity's Last Exam · source date Qwen 3.8 Max: 2026-08-14Not verifiedUnverified56.2

Dates beside benchmark scores refer to the linked source’s publication or capture date unless that source explicitly states when it measured the result. A shared URL alone does not establish comparable runs; unverified setups are marked. Prices are USD per million tokens at standard rates, excluding batch and caching discounts. Values we could not confirm from the provider are shown as “Not verified” rather than estimated.

Benchmark receipts

Where each score comes from, and how far it can be compared across models.

Pricing tiers

GPT-5.6 Sol: Launch $5/$30, reduced to promotional $4/$20 on August 21; available at least through November 21, 2026. Above 272K input the full request bills $8/$30. Cached input $0.40/$0.80 short/long and cache writes $5/$10. Batch is $2/$10 at short context. Regional/FedRAMP processing adds 10% where eligible. Knowledge cutoff Feb 16 2026.

Qwen 3.8 Max: Model Studio International $2/$6 per MTok; implicit cache $0.25, explicit creation $2.50/read $0.17. China/Global $1.65/$4.951, cache $0.206, creation $2.063/read $0.137. Output 131,072 in both modes; input 991,808 non-thinking or 983,616 thinking, 1M context and 262,144 reasoning. Batch supported in China, unavailable in International/Global.

FrontierRecord checked October 1, 2026

GPT-5.6 Sol

GPT-5.6 Sol was OpenAI's GPT-5.6 flagship for complex reasoning and coding with a 1.05M-token context — superseded on 2026-09-22 by GPT-6 Sol at half the price.

Best for

  • Complex reasoning
  • Agentic coding
  • Hard knowledge work

Watch out

GPT-6.1 Sol is the newer Sol option at $2/$10 Standard. GPT-5.6 Sol remains listed; its $4/$20 price is promotional. Max effort can increase token use, and Ultra is a multi-agent configuration rather than a separate reasoning.effort value.

FrontierRecord checked October 2, 2026

Qwen 3.8 Max

Qwen 3.8 Max is Alibaba's managed multimodal flagship, with a vendor-described 2.4T MoE scale and 1M context.

Best for

  • Hosted agentic work
  • Long-context
  • Multimodal

Watch out

The text-only open checkpoint has 262,144 native context with extension and requires thinking; its 95B active count is not verified for the managed API. Managed Max accepts visual input and supports thinking on/off, xhigh default and low/medium/xhigh controls, with preserved thinking by default. API reasoning_effort and thinking_budget cannot both be set. Regional web-search and Batch support differ. Independent AA 0902 results identify a snapshot, not every alias version.

When the cheaper one wins

Qwen 3.8 Max is cheaper on output at $6 per million tokens against $20 for GPT-5.6 Sol — about 3.3×. Use the cheaper tier for classification, extraction, summarisation, and any task where the expensive model’s extra score does not change the accepted output. The expensive one only pays if your hardest task actually fails on the cheap tier. On DeepSWE 1.1, Qwen 3.8 Max is 57.5% Pass@1 at $3.73/task versus GPT-5.6 Sol at 72.7% / $8.39/task. This compares standard short-context token rates, not total cost per accepted task. Include input, cache, context tiers, schedules, retries and review in your pilot.

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Evidence confidence: Medium

How strong and complete the evidence behind this comparison is — not a prediction of which model is better.

  • Pricing verified on both sides — Input and output rates are verified for both models.
  • 4/5 core specs verified on both sides — Not published for at least one side: parameter count.
  • No directly aligned benchmark setup — No benchmark has matching cited sources, source dates, units, effort and recorded run details on both models.
  • Verified within the last 90 days — Older of the two catalog checks was 25 days ago.
  • Both models carry source citations — Each side has at least two catalog sources on record.

Source receipts

Each catalog figure was checked against the provider or an independent second source on the date shown.

Related comparisons

Diving deeper on one model? GPT-5.6 Sol · Qwen 3.8 Max

Common questions

GPT-5.6 Sol vs Qwen 3.8 Max

Answered from the verified figures on this page rather than general guidance.

Is GPT-5.6 Sol or Qwen 3.8 Max cheaper for input?
Qwen 3.8 Max is cheaper at $2 per million input tokens, against $4 for GPT-5.6 Sol — roughly 2.0× the price. Estimate both input and output token volume for your workload. These are base rates; GPT-5.6 Sol: Launch $5/$30, reduced to promotional $4/$20 on August 21; available at least through November 21, 2026. Above 272K input the full request bills $8/$30. Cached input $0.40/$0.80 short/long and cache writes $5/$10. Batch is $2/$10 at short context. Regional/FedRAMP processing adds 10% where eligible. Knowledge cutoff Feb 16 2026. Qwen 3.8 Max: Model Studio International $2/$6 per MTok; implicit cache $0.25, explicit creation $2.50/read $0.17. China/Global $1.65/$4.951, cache $0.206, creation $2.063/read $0.137. Output 131,072 in both modes; input 991,808 non-thinking or 983,616 thinking, 1M context and 262,144 reasoning. Batch supported in China, unavailable in International/Global.
Is GPT-5.6 Sol or Qwen 3.8 Max cheaper for output?
Qwen 3.8 Max is cheaper at $6 per million output tokens, against $20 for GPT-5.6 Sol — roughly 3.3× the price. Estimate both input and output token volume for your workload. These are base rates; GPT-5.6 Sol: Launch $5/$30, reduced to promotional $4/$20 on August 21; available at least through November 21, 2026. Above 272K input the full request bills $8/$30. Cached input $0.40/$0.80 short/long and cache writes $5/$10. Batch is $2/$10 at short context. Regional/FedRAMP processing adds 10% where eligible. Knowledge cutoff Feb 16 2026. Qwen 3.8 Max: Model Studio International $2/$6 per MTok; implicit cache $0.25, explicit creation $2.50/read $0.17. China/Global $1.65/$4.951, cache $0.206, creation $2.063/read $0.137. Output 131,072 in both modes; input 991,808 non-thinking or 983,616 thinking, 1M context and 262,144 reasoning. Batch supported in China, unavailable in International/Global.
Which has the larger context window, GPT-5.6 Sol or Qwen 3.8 Max?
GPT-5.6 Sol accepts 1.05M tokens against 1M for Qwen 3.8 Max. This only matters if you routinely send very long documents or large codebases.
Do GPT-5.6 Sol and Qwen 3.8 Max support the same reasoning levels?
GPT-5.6 Sol exposes none, low, medium, high, xhigh, max, while Qwen 3.8 Max exposes low, medium, xhigh.
Should I use GPT-5.6 Sol or Qwen 3.8 Max?
Both are classified in our frontier tier; this editorial grouping does not imply equal capability. GPT-5.6 Sol is a candidate for complex reasoning; Qwen 3.8 Max is a candidate for hosted agentic work. Compare accuracy, tool reliability, latency and cost on representative tasks.

Next step

Choosing between them

The verified figures that separate this pair, computed from the catalog rather than restated boilerplate.

  • Input price: Qwen 3.8 Max costs $2 per 1M tokens versus $4 for GPT-5.6 Sol — a 2x difference at the headline tier.
  • Context: GPT-5.6 Sol takes 1.05M against 1M for Qwen 3.8 Max — only decisive if your prompts approach the smaller window.
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