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Model comparison

Qwen 3.7 Max vs Qwen 3.8 Max

Two Qwen tiers compared on the figures that decide which one a workload actually needs.

Catalog record checked September 3, 2026Individual provider fields may changeEvidence confidence: High — see receipts below

Qwen

Qwen 3.7 Max

Frontier

vs

Qwen

Qwen 3.8 Max

Frontier · Open weights

AI model capability comparison
SpecificationQwen 3.7 MaxQwen 3.8 Max
ProviderQwenQwen
TierFrontierFrontier
Context windowWinner: 1M991K
Max output128KWinner: 131K
Input / 1M tokens$2.50Winner: $2
Output / 1M tokens$7.50Winner: $6
WeightsClosedOpen
Parametersproprietary MoE2.4T total / 95B active (MoE)
Reasoning levelslow, high, maxlow, high, max
Modalitiestext, image, videotext, image, video
API model idqwen3.7-maxqwen3.8-max
ReleasedMay 20, 2026August 3, 2026
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (2026-08-14)55Winner: 58
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (2026-08-03)Not verifiedUnverified86.6
GPQA Diamond (2026-08-03)Not verifiedUnverified92.6
Humanity's Last Exam (2026-08-14)Not verifiedUnverified56.2
SWE-bench Verified (2026-09-01)Not verifiedUnverified85.6

Prices are USD per million tokens at standard rates, excluding batch and caching discounts. Bold indicates the better figure where one is objectively better. Values we could not confirm from the provider are shown as “Not verified” rather than estimated.

Benchmark receipts

  • 2026-09-01: vals.ai SWE-bench Verified leaderboard (independent, mini-swe-agent bash-only); not published by Qwen (official used SWE-bench Pro 67.7)Real GitHub issue resolution: does the model's patch pass the hidden tests. Comparability: comparable with caveat — Post-audit vendor claims and pre-audit scores sit on different task trust levels; scaffolding (agent harness, compute budget) also dominates results. Never aggregate across scaffolds.
  • 2026-08-14: Z.ai GLM-5.3 blog (independent Z.ai-run, with tools; Qwen official no-tools 43.6 — both preserved)Frontier-knowledge ceiling: extremely hard multi-domain questions written to be near-impossible without deep expertise. Comparability: comparable with caveat — Subset/tool configurations (text-only vs with-tools) differ between vendors and materially change scores; must match configuration to compare.
  • 2026-08-14: Artificial AnalysisComposite index blending reasoning, knowledge, and coding evals into one 0–100 score. Comparability: directly comparable — AA occasionally rebaselines the index scale between snapshots — a score captured on one date is only comparable to same-snapshot scores (check measuredAt).
  • 2026-08-03: Qwen official blog (vendor-run table)Agentic terminal work: multi-step tasks executed in a sandboxed shell environment. Comparability: comparable with caveat — Scores across Terminal-Bench major versions (v1 vs v2) are NOT comparable; harness configuration (container, time limits) also shifts results.

Pricing tiers: Qwen 3.7 Max: Model Studio list $2.50/$7.50 per MTok; a 50%-off promo ($1.25/$3.75) ran at launch. Closed API. · Qwen 3.8 Max: $2/$6 per MTok (Alibaba Cloud Model Studio). Weights announced open, verify they have dropped.

FrontierRecord checked September 3, 2026

Qwen 3.7 Max

Qwen 3.7 Max is Alibaba's previous-generation proprietary flagship with a 1M-token context.

Best for

  • API-only multimodal
  • Long-context
  • Enterprise

Watch out

Closed/proprietary; no published weights. Succeeded by Qwen 3.8 Max.

FrontierOpen weightsRecord checked September 3, 2026

Qwen 3.8 Max

Qwen 3.8 Max is Alibaba's flagship — 2.4T MoE with 1M-class context, near frontier on the Intelligence Index.

Best for

  • Open-weight frontier work
  • Long-context
  • Multimodal

Watch out

Open weights dropped 2026-08-12 under a custom (non-Apache) licence with vision and 1M-context stripped from the open checkpoint — the open checkpoint is not the full API model. Verify the licence before commercial use.

When the cheaper one wins

Qwen 3.8 Max is cheaper on output at $6 per million tokens against $7.50 for Qwen 3.7 Max — about 1.3×. 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. These are standard-tier API rates, excluding batch and cache discounts.

Run the model picker

Evidence confidence: High

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.
  • 5/5 core specs verified on both sides — All core specifications verified for both models.
  • 1 shared named benchmark with differing scores — Measured on: Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.
  • Verified within the last 90 days — Newest catalog check was 8 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? Qwen 3.7 Max · Qwen 3.8 Max

Common questions

Qwen 3.7 Max vs Qwen 3.8 Max

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

Is Qwen 3.7 Max or Qwen 3.8 Max cheaper for input?

Qwen 3.8 Max is cheaper at $2 per million input tokens, against $2.50 for Qwen 3.7 Max — roughly 1.3× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; Qwen 3.7 Max has tiered pricing: Model Studio list $2.50/$7.50 per MTok; a 50%-off promo ($1.25/$3.75) ran at launch. Closed API. Qwen 3.8 Max has tiered pricing: $2/$6 per MTok (Alibaba Cloud Model Studio). Weights announced open, verify they have dropped.

Is Qwen 3.7 Max or Qwen 3.8 Max cheaper for output?

Qwen 3.8 Max is cheaper at $6 per million output tokens, against $7.50 for Qwen 3.7 Max — roughly 1.3× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; Qwen 3.7 Max has tiered pricing: Model Studio list $2.50/$7.50 per MTok; a 50%-off promo ($1.25/$3.75) ran at launch. Closed API. Qwen 3.8 Max has tiered pricing: $2/$6 per MTok (Alibaba Cloud Model Studio). Weights announced open, verify they have dropped.

Which has the larger context window, Qwen 3.7 Max or Qwen 3.8 Max?

Qwen 3.7 Max accepts 1M tokens against 991K for Qwen 3.8 Max. This only matters if you routinely send very long documents or large codebases.

Do Qwen 3.7 Max and Qwen 3.8 Max support the same reasoning levels?

Yes — both accept the same effort settings: "low", "high", "max". Higher effort costs more and takes longer, so start low and raise it only where output quality actually improves.

Should I use Qwen 3.7 Max or Qwen 3.8 Max?

Both sit in the frontier tier, so the choice usually comes down to price and context rather than capability. Qwen 3.7 Max suits api-only multimodal; Qwen 3.8 Max suits open-weight frontier work.

Can I self-host Qwen 3.7 Max or Qwen 3.8 Max?

Qwen 3.8 Max publishes open weights, but self-hosting and third-party provider access depend on the licence, hardware, serving support, and availability. Qwen 3.7 Max is a closed model whose supported access paths are controlled by its provider.

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 $2.50 for Qwen 3.7 Max — a 1.3x difference at the headline tier.
  • Context: Qwen 3.7 Max takes 1M against 991K for Qwen 3.8 Max — only decisive if your prompts approach the smaller window.
  • Measured capability: Qwen 3.8 Max leads Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index 58 to 55 (measured 2026-08-14).
  • Deployment: Qwen 3.8 Max publishes weights you can self-host; the other is API-only.
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