Model comparison

Claude Opus 5.5 vs Qwen3 Max

Claude Opus 5.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 68.5 to 43.5 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3 Max costs 3.3× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Claude Opus 5.5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 19 shared benchmarks.

Claude Opus 5.5 Anthropic

68.5

Rank #3 Confirmed

Qwen3 Max Alibaba (Qwen)

43.5

Rank #82 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 19 benchmarks with published results for both. Claude Opus 5.5 scores higher in 8 categories and Qwen3 Max in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in reasoning, where Claude Opus 5.5 leads 79.5 to 22.0.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3): 91.2% for Claude Opus 5.5 and 18.9% for Qwen3 Max.
  • Qwen3 Max is cheaper at $1.20 / $6 per million input/output tokens, against $4 / $20 for Claude Opus 5.5.
  • Claude Opus 5.5 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 262K.

Side by side

Claude Opus 5.5 and Qwen3 Max specifications
Claude Opus 5.5Qwen3 Max
ProviderAnthropicAlibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index68.543.5
Released2026-09-222025-09-23
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
Context window1M262K
Max output128K66K
Input $ / M tokens$4$1.20
Output $ / M tokens$20$6
Results tracked3533

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Category by category

Coding Claude Opus 5.5 leads

Claude Opus 5.5: 71.4 (#1), Qwen3 Max: 42.4 (#93)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Opus 5.5Qwen3 Max
LMArena Coding15451456
FrontierCode54.4%—
CursorBench57.8%—
LMArena WebDev1820—
FrontierSWE62.3%—
SciCode66.9%—
MirrorCode77.4%—
ALE-Bench—370.45

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Claude Opus 5.5: 45.3 (#13), Qwen3 Max: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Opus 5.5Qwen3 Max
APEX-Agents73.5%—
GDP.pdf30.6%—
Vending-Bench 2—71.56

Reasoning Claude Opus 5.5 leads

Claude Opus 5.5: 79.5 (#2), Qwen3 Max: 22.0 (#186)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Opus 5.5Qwen3 Max
NYT Connections (extended)88.5%30.1%
LMArena Hard Prompts15451448
Mystery Game Puzzles71%5%
DTBench98.9%82.1%
LMCA68.2%28.3%
ARC-AGI-292.5%—
Kagi LLM Benchmark—72.5%
ARC-AGI-197.5%—
CritPt31.7%—
Chess Puzzles—4%
EBR-Bench71.4%—
Epoch Capabilities Index—142.41

Math Claude Opus 5.5 leads

Claude Opus 5.5: 92.4 (#2), Qwen3 Max: 37.6 (#94)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Opus 5.5Qwen3 Max
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)91.2%18.9%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025100%73.3%
FrontierMath Tier 495%—
ProofBench100%—
LMArena Math—1447
MATH Level 5—97.1%

Knowledge Claude Opus 5.5 leads

Claude Opus 5.5: 66.6 (#9), Qwen3 Max: 48.1 (#72)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Opus 5.5Qwen3 Max
GPQA Diamond90.6%72.6%
SimpleQA Verified72.2%48.7%
LMArena Expert15641457

Multimodal Not comparable

Claude Opus 5.5: 56.5 (#2), Qwen3 Max: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Opus 5.5Qwen3 Max
Furniture Assembly83.3%—

Multilingual Claude Opus 5.5 leads

Claude Opus 5.5: 59.8 (#1), Qwen3 Max: 53.9 (#58)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Opus 5.5Qwen3 Max
LMArena Non-English15131429
LMArena Chinese15721479
LMArena Russian15321428
LMArena French—1450
LMArena German—1463
LMArena Japanese—1399
LMArena Korean—1397
LMArena Spanish—1463

Instruction Following Claude Opus 5.5 leads

Claude Opus 5.5: 80.1 (#2), Qwen3 Max: 75.0 (#81)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Opus 5.5Qwen3 Max
LMArena Instruction Following15351420

Long Context Claude Opus 5.5 leads

Claude Opus 5.5: 47.3 (#18), Qwen3 Max: 41.6 (#129)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Opus 5.5Qwen3 Max
LMArena Longer Query15401439
Fiction.LiveBench—66.7%
CL-bench—14.5%

Writing & Preference Claude Opus 5.5 leads

Claude Opus 5.5: 78.7 (#3), Qwen3 Max: 62.6 (#72)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Opus 5.5Qwen3 Max
LMArena Text15181439
LMArena Creative Writing15381401
LMArena Multi-Turn15201446
EQ-Bench Creative Writing2050—

Frequently asked questions

Is Claude Opus 5.5 better than Qwen3 Max?

Claude Opus 5.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 68.5 to 43.5 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3 Max costs 3.3× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Claude Opus 5.5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 5.5 or Qwen3 Max?

Qwen3 Max is cheaper. It lists at $1.20 per million input tokens and $6 per million output tokens; Claude Opus 5.5 lists at $4 and $20.

Is Claude Opus 5.5 or Qwen3 Max better for coding?

Claude Opus 5.5 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 71.4 versus 42.4 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Claude Opus 5.5 does, with 1M tokens against 262K.

How many benchmarks do Claude Opus 5.5 and Qwen3 Max share?

19 benchmarks have published results for both models. Claude Opus 5.5 has 35 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 Max has 33.

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