Comparison · Anthropic and Qwen
Claude Opus 5.5 vs Qwen3.8 Max Prime
Listed API prices of Claude Opus 5.5 and Qwen3.8 Max Prime turned into the cost of the same three standard tasks and what each provider’s API documentation says about features that break on a switch. Output quality, speed and answer length are not compared.
Calculated impact cost per task and per month
For an L2 task (deep analysis over a 50,000-token document, 3 steps), Claude Opus 5.5 costs $0.696 and Qwen3.8 Max Prime $0.672 at the prices listed in the United States on , so Claude Opus 5.5 is 3.6 % more than Qwen3.8 Max Prime, counting visible output only, without cache discounts or hidden reasoning.
| Task | Claude Opus 5.5, per task | Qwen3.8 Max Prime, per task | Claude Opus 5.5, per month | Qwen3.8 Max Prime, per month | Claude Opus 5.5 vs Qwen3.8 Max Prime, per task |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| L1Micro-task (classification or strict JSON extraction) | $0.010per L1 task | $0.0084per L1 task | $146.00per month | $122.64per month | +19.0 % |
| L2Deep analysis over a 50,000-token document | $0.696per L2 task | $0.672per L2 task | $10,161.60per month | $9,811.20per month | +3.6 % |
| L3Agentic coding loop, 15 steps | $5.44per L3 task | $5.37per L3 task | $79,453.20per month | $78,402.00per month | +1.3 % |
Calculated Per month: 20 tasks an hour around the clock, 730 hours.
Prices USD per 1M tokens
| Price | Claude Opus 5.5 | Qwen3.8 Max Prime |
|---|---|---|
| Input, per 1M tokens | $4.00 | $4.00 |
| Output, per 1M tokens | $20.00 | $12.00 |
| Price from | Provider's price list · source page Published | OpenRouter · source page (data) Published |
| Read | · the United States | · the United States |
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens |
What can I use it for? six common tasks, our data checks
Quality on your task: not measured by Measured Lab yet.
| Task | Claude Opus 5.5 | Qwen3.8 Max Prime |
|---|---|---|
| Answer customer messages | Fits on price and context | — |
| Pull data from invoices and documents with strict JSON and page images | Fits on price and context | — |
| Summarize documents and meetings | Fits on price and context | — |
| Translate content | Fits on price and context | — |
| Chat assistant on your website | Fits on price and context | — |
| Write and review code with tool calls | Fits on price and context | — |
| Tasks it fits | 6 of 6 | — |
Checks of our data for six common tasks: a published price, a context window and answer length for the task and, where the task needs them, strict JSON output, page images and tool calls; prices, cost a month and terms for each model on its model card. Qwen3.8 Max Prime is not in the model picker. Compare models for your own task in the model picker.
What breaks when you switch Published provider documentation
Moving from Anthropic to Qwen, 3 of the 5 features may not carry over, by each provider’s documentation:
- Strict JSON schemas — Anthropic: yes; Qwen: partly. Code that parses answers without checks starts failing where a provider promises only valid JSON, not your schema.
- Streamed tool arguments — Anthropic: yes; Qwen: not stated. An interface that shows arguments as they are written sees nothing until the whole call is ready.
- Cache covers tool definitions — Anthropic: yes; Qwen: not stated. Where the cache does not cover tool definitions, a long tool list is paid as fresh input on every request.
Moving from Qwen to Anthropic: every feature that Qwen’s documentation lists as supported is also listed as supported by Anthropic.
| Feature of the API | Anthropic | Qwen |
|---|---|---|
| Strict JSON schemas | Yes | Partly |
| Parallel tool calls | Yes | Yes |
| Streamed tool arguments | Yes | Not stated |
| Reasoning with tools | Yes | Yes |
| Cache covers tool definitions | Yes | Not stated |
What each provider’s own API documentation says, read ; “not stated” is not the same as “no”. Quotes and sources: what breaks when you switch AI APIs.