Model comparison
Qwen 3.8 Max vs Qwen3-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 3.8 Max
Frontier · Open weights
Qwen
Qwen3-Max
Frontier
| Specification | Qwen 3.8 Max | Qwen3-Max |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Qwen | Qwen |
| Tier | Frontier | Frontier |
| Context window | Winner: 991K | 262K |
| Max output | Winner: 131K | 66K |
| Input / 1M tokens | $2 | Winner: $1.20 |
| Output / 1M tokens | $6 | $6 |
| Weights | Open | Closed |
| Parameters | 2.4T total / 95B active (MoE) | 1T (proprietary) |
| Reasoning levels | low, high, max | low, high, max |
| Modalities | text, image, video | text, image, video |
| API model id | qwen3.8-max | qwen3-max |
| Released | August 3, 2026 | September 23, 2025 |
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (2026-08-14) | Winner: 58 | 52 |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (2026-08-03) | 86.6 | Not verifiedUnverified |
| GPQA Diamond (2026-08-03) | 92.6 | Not verifiedUnverified |
| Humanity's Last Exam (2026-08-14) | 56.2 | Not verifiedUnverified |
| SWE-bench Verified (2026-09-01) | 85.6 | Not verifiedUnverified |
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 3.8 Max: $2/$6 per MTok (Alibaba Cloud Model Studio). Weights announced open, verify they have dropped. · Qwen3-Max: Qwen API $1.20/$6.00 per MTok (≤32K); higher tiers for 32K–256K. OpenRouter lists ~$0.78/$3.90. Proprietary, API-only.
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.
Qwen3-Max
Qwen3-Max is Alibaba's proprietary 1-trillion-parameter API model with multimodal input.
Best for
- Agentic coding
- Multimodal knowledge work
- Long-context via API
Watch out
Max line is proprietary/API-only (no published weights). Per-provider prices differ.
When the cheaper one wins
Both charge $6 per million output tokens at standard rates, so output price is not the split. Prefer the row whose “best for” line matches the job, then confirm the live vendor rate.
Run the model pickerEvidence 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.
- Qwen 3.8 Max: Qwen — Qwen 3.8 Max (accessed 2026-08-29)
- Qwen 3.8 Max: Alibaba Cloud Model Studio (accessed 2026-08-29)
- Qwen3-Max: OpenRouter — Qwen3-Max (accessed 2026-08-29)
- Qwen3-Max: AI Release Tracker — Qwen3-Max (accessed 2026-08-29)
Related comparisons
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- Claude Fable 5 vs Qwen3-Max
- Claude Mythos 5.1 vs Qwen 3.8 Max
- Claude Mythos 5.1 vs Qwen3-Max
Diving deeper on one model? Qwen 3.8 Max · Qwen3-Max
Common questions
Qwen 3.8 Max vs Qwen3-Max
Answered from the verified figures on this page rather than general guidance.
Is Qwen 3.8 Max or Qwen3-Max cheaper for input?
Qwen3-Max is cheaper at $1.20 per million input tokens, against $2 for Qwen 3.8 Max — roughly 1.7× 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 3.8 Max has tiered pricing: $2/$6 per MTok (Alibaba Cloud Model Studio). Weights announced open, verify they have dropped. Qwen3-Max has tiered pricing: Qwen API $1.20/$6.00 per MTok (≤32K); higher tiers for 32K–256K. OpenRouter lists ~$0.78/$3.90. Proprietary, API-only.
Is Qwen 3.8 Max or Qwen3-Max cheaper for output?
Both cost $6 per million output tokens at standard rates, so output price is not a deciding factor between them.
Which has the larger context window, Qwen 3.8 Max or Qwen3-Max?
Qwen 3.8 Max accepts 991K tokens against 262K for Qwen3-Max. This only matters if you routinely send very long documents or large codebases.
Do Qwen 3.8 Max and Qwen3-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 3.8 Max or Qwen3-Max?
Both sit in the frontier tier, so the choice usually comes down to price and context rather than capability. Qwen 3.8 Max suits open-weight frontier work; Qwen3-Max suits agentic coding.
Can I self-host Qwen 3.8 Max or Qwen3-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. Qwen3-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: Qwen3-Max costs $1.20 per 1M tokens versus $2 for Qwen 3.8 Max — a 1.7x difference at the headline tier.
- Context: Qwen 3.8 Max takes 991K against 262K for Qwen3-Max — only decisive if your prompts approach the smaller window.
- Measured capability: Qwen 3.8 Max leads Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index 58 to 52 (measured 2026-08-14).
- Deployment: Qwen 3.8 Max publishes weights you can self-host; the other is API-only.
Choosing a harness rather than a model — Cursor, Copilot, Claude Code, Windsurf, or Lovable? Compare agentic harnesses · Latest releases.