# Qwen3.8 Max vs Sonar

> Qwen3.8 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.8 to 38.5 on the Noometry Index. Sonar costs 3.0× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.8 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/qwen3-8-max-vs-sonar
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 0

## Summary

- The widest gap is in math, where Qwen3.8 Max leads 73.2 to 33.7.
- Sonar is cheaper at $1 / $1 per million input/output tokens, against $2 / $6 for Qwen3.8 Max.
- Qwen3.8 Max accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 128K.

## Snapshot

| | Qwen3.8 Max | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | Perplexity |
| Noometry Index | 56.8 | 38.5 |
| Rank | 22 | 187 |
| Context | 1M | 128K |
| Input $/M | $2 | $1 |
| Output $/M | $6 | $1 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Qwen3.8 Max: 53.5 (#29)
- Sonar: 35.7 (#221)

| Benchmark | Qwen3.8 Max | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| DeepSWE | 57.5% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1674 | — |
| FrontierSWE | 17.8% | — |
| SciCode | 53.2% | — |
| LiveBench Coding | — | 35.1% |
| LMArena Coding | 1502 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Qwen3.8 Max: 45.4 (#14)
- Sonar: —

| Benchmark | Qwen3.8 Max | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 63.3% | — |
| τ²-bench Banking | 55.1% | — |
| GDP.pdf | 23.2% | — |

## Reasoning

- Qwen3.8 Max: 54.4 (#26)
- Sonar: 21.1 (#227)

| Benchmark | Qwen3.8 Max | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| NYT Connections (extended) | 88.3% | — |
| CritPt | 20% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 40% | — |
| LiveBench Reasoning | — | 46.3% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1496 | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 38% | — |
| DTBench | 92% | — |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | — | 37.9% |
| LMCA | 46.2% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 156.41 | — |
| LiveBench | — | 46.9% |

## Math

- Qwen3.8 Max: 73.2 (#20)
- Sonar: 33.7 (#200)

| Benchmark | Qwen3.8 Max | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 74.7% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 46.3% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 100% | — |
| ProofBench | 58% | — |
| LiveBench Math | — | 41.6% |
| LMArena Math | 1499 | — |

## Knowledge

- Qwen3.8 Max: 61.7 (#27)
- Sonar: —

| Benchmark | Qwen3.8 Max | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 92.7% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 47.3% | — |
| LMArena Expert | 1507 | — |

## Multimodal

- Qwen3.8 Max: 37.2 (#75)
- Sonar: —

| Benchmark | Qwen3.8 Max | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1314 | — |
| Furniture Assembly | 20% | — |

## Multilingual

- Qwen3.8 Max: 56.7 (#18)
- Sonar: —

| Benchmark | Qwen3.8 Max | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1472 | — |
| LMArena Chinese | 1538 | — |
| LMArena French | 1503 | — |
| LMArena German | 1483 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1467 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1461 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1481 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1492 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Qwen3.8 Max: 77.6 (#17)
- Sonar: 71.4 (#150)

| Benchmark | Qwen3.8 Max | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Instruction Following | — | 76.2% |
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1479 | — |

## Long Context

- Qwen3.8 Max: 45.6 (#31)
- Sonar: —

| Benchmark | Qwen3.8 Max | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1489 | — |

## Writing & Preference

- Qwen3.8 Max: 67.1 (#30)
- Sonar: 52.6 (#167)

| Benchmark | Qwen3.8 Max | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1483 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1479 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1489 | — |
| LiveBench Language | — | 44.1% |

## FAQ

### Is Qwen3.8 Max better than Sonar?

Qwen3.8 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.8 to 38.5 on the Noometry Index. Sonar costs 3.0× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.8 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Qwen3.8 Max or Sonar?

Sonar is cheaper. It lists at $1 per million input tokens and $1 per million output tokens; Qwen3.8 Max lists at $2 and $6.

### Is Qwen3.8 Max or Sonar better for coding?

Qwen3.8 Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 53.5 versus 35.7 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3.8 Max does, with 1M tokens against 128K.

### How many benchmarks do Qwen3.8 Max and Sonar share?

0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen3.8 Max has 39 scored results on Noometry and Sonar has 7.