Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Qwen3.8 Max

As of November 10, 2026, Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Qwen3.8 Max cost the same per input token ($2.00 per 1M), but Claude Sonnet 5.5 costs 67% more per output token ($10.00 vs $6.00) and has a 1M-token context window versus 992K.

Prices from LiteLLM's price fileChecked November 10, 2026

Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Qwen3.8 Max side by side

Headline prices in US dollars per 1M tokens: each model's own lab where it sells it, otherwise its cheapest provider. Source: LiteLLM model price file, as of November 10, 2026.
	Claude Sonnet 5.5	Qwen3.8 Max
Input, per 1M tokens	$2.00	$2.00
Output, per 1M tokens	$10.00	$6.00
Cache read, per 1M tokens	$0.10	$0.25
Cache write, per 1M tokens	$2.50	–
Context window	1,000,000 tokens	991,808 tokens
Max output	128,000 tokens	131,072 tokens
Image input	Yes	Yes
Tool calling	Yes	Yes
Structured output (JSON)	Yes	Yes
Prompt caching	Yes	Yes
Reasoning	Yes	Yes
Providers on LiteLLM	9	12
Price shown is from	Anthropic	Alibaba Cloud Model Studio
Added to LiteLLM	September 28, 2026	August 7, 2026

Cheapest provider for each

Claude Sonnet 5.5: Databricks at $2.00 input and $10.00 output per 1M tokens (databricks/databricks-claude-sonnet-5-5)
Qwen3.8 Max: DeepInfra at $1.65 input and $4.951 output per 1M tokens (deepinfra/Qwen/Qwen3.8-Max)

Benchmark scores

From the Epoch AI Benchmarking Hub (CC BY 4.0), data as of September 29, 2026. Some results were run by Epoch and others collected by Epoch from each benchmark's own leaderboard, linked in the first column. Each model's best reported reasoning setting is shown in brackets. Higher is better. Only benchmarks with a score for both models are shown.
Benchmark	Claude Sonnet 5.5	Qwen3.8 Max
Coding and agents
FrontierSWE	61.9% (max)	15.8% (xhigh)
APEX-Agents	75.5% (max)	63.3%
Reasoning and knowledge
GPQA Diamond	95.6% (max)	92.7% (xhigh)
SimpleQA Verified	46.5% (max)	45.8% (xhigh)
Math
FrontierMath (tiers 1-3)	88.8% (max)	74.7% (xhigh)
FrontierMath (tier 4)	80.5% (max)	46.3% (xhigh)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025	100.0% (max)	99.4% (xhigh)

When to pick which

Pick Qwen3.8 Max for

Costs 40% less per output token: $6.00 vs $10.00 per 1M.

From differences in the data above only; where the data is equal, no reason is given.

Call Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Qwen3.8 Max with LiteLLM

Both use the OpenAI format through LiteLLM, so switching is a model name change. Set each provider's API key in the environment first.

Python SDK

from litellm import completion

messages = [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}]

# Claude Sonnet 5.5
response = completion(model="claude-sonnet-5-5", messages=messages)

# Qwen3.8 Max
response = completion(model="dashscope/qwen3.8-max", messages=messages)

# Claude Sonnet 5.5, falling back to Qwen3.8 Max if the call fails
response = completion(model="claude-sonnet-5-5", messages=messages, fallbacks=["dashscope/qwen3.8-max"])

FAQ

Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Qwen3.8 Max?

Qwen3.8 Max is cheaper at 3 input tokens per output token: $3.00 per 1M tokens blended ($2.00 input, $6.00 output), versus $4.00 ($2.00 and $10.00) for Claude Sonnet 5.5, as of November 10, 2026.

Which has the larger context window, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Qwen3.8 Max?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 has the larger context window: 1,000,000 tokens, versus 991,808 for Qwen3.8 Max.

Can I switch from Claude Sonnet 5.5 to Qwen3.8 Max without changing my code?

Yes. Through LiteLLM both use the OpenAI format, so switching means changing the model name from "claude-sonnet-5-5" to "dashscope/qwen3.8-max", or pointing a LiteLLM gateway model alias at the other model. You can also use one as a fallback for the other.