Claude Sonnet 4.5 Pro vs Qwen3-Max Max: which model should you choose?
We compared Claude Sonnet 4.5 Pro and Qwen3-Max Max on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Claude Sonnet 4.5 Pro has the stronger average benchmark score; Qwen3-Max Max is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
Claude Sonnet 4.5 Pro
Claude Sonnet 4.5 Pro is a frontier model from Anthropic. It offers a 1,000,000-token context window, costs $18.73 per million input tokens and $82.29 per million output tokens, and averages 86.7 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $18.73 / 1M
- Output
- $82.29 / 1M
- Context
- 1,000,000
- Avg score
- 86.7
- Open weights
- No
Qwen3-Max Max
Qwen3-Max Max is a frontier model from Alibaba Cloud. It offers a 400,000-token context window, costs $18.53 per million input tokens and $74.05 per million output tokens, and averages 85.9 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $18.53 / 1M
- Output
- $74.05 / 1M
- Context
- 400,000
- Avg score
- 85.9
- Open weights
- No
Specification comparison
| Spec | Claude Sonnet 4.5 Pro | Qwen3-Max Max | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $18.73 | $18.53 | B |
| Output price / 1M | $82.29 | $74.05 | B |
| Context window | 1,000,000 | 400,000 | A |
| Max output | 16,384 | 65,536 | B |
| Average score | 86.7 | 85.9 | A |
| Arena Elo | 1469.0 | 1467.7 | A |
| Open weights | No | No | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
Claude Sonnet 4.5 Pro wins 7, Qwen3-Max Max wins 5, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.5 Pro | Qwen3-Max Max | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 86.3 | 85.2 | 1.1 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 Pro |
| GPQA Diamond | 83.1 | 83.8 | 0.7 | Qwen3-Max Max |
| SWE-bench Verified | 73.9 | 74.3 | 0.4 | Qwen3-Max Max |
| HumanEval | 92.7 | 90.2 | 2.5 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 Pro |
| MATH-500 | 90.1 | 92.8 | 2.7 | Qwen3-Max Max |
| AIME 2025 | 88.4 | 82.7 | 5.7 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 Pro |
| LiveCodeBench | 81.9 | 82.8 | 0.9 | Qwen3-Max Max |
| IFEval | 94.1 | 93.7 | 0.4 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 Pro |
| TruthfulQA | 86.1 | 89.3 | 3.2 | Qwen3-Max Max |
| HellaSwag | 92.6 | 91.4 | 1.2 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 Pro |
| MMMU | 84.5 | 78.9 | 5.6 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 Pro |
| Arena Elo | 1469.0 | 1467.7 | 1.3 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 Pro |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, Claude Sonnet 4.5 Pro costs about $34.62 per million tokens and Qwen3-Max Max costs about $32.41. Qwen3-Max Max is roughly 6% cheaper than Claude Sonnet 4.5 Pro. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
Claude Sonnet 4.5 Pro has the larger context window at 1,000,000 tokens, compared with 400,000 for Qwen3-Max Max. That matters for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, Claude Sonnet 4.5 Pro wins 7, Qwen3-Max Max wins 5, and 0 are tied. On the index average, Claude Sonnet 4.5 Pro leads Qwen3-Max Max by 0.8 points (86.7 versus 85.9).
The price picture favours Qwen3-Max Max. The context picture favours Claude Sonnet 4.5 Pro. Those two dimensions often matter more than a few benchmark points once a model is good enough for the task.
If you need a single default, start with Claude Sonnet 4.5 Pro for quality-sensitive work and Qwen3-Max Max for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.
Choose Claude Sonnet 4.5 Pro if
- You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
- You need the larger 1,000,000-token context window.
Choose Qwen3-Max Max if
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
- You need the larger 65,536-token output limit.
FAQ
Is Claude Sonnet 4.5 Pro better than Qwen3-Max Max?
On the index average, Claude Sonnet 4.5 Pro leads Qwen3-Max Max by 0.8 points (86.7 versus 85.9). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. Claude Sonnet 4.5 Pro wins 7 benchmarks, Qwen3-Max Max wins 5.
Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 4.5 Pro or Qwen3-Max Max?
Qwen3-Max Max is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $32.41 per million tokens, versus $34.62 for Claude Sonnet 4.5 Pro.
Which has the larger context window?
Claude Sonnet 4.5 Pro has the larger context window at 1,000,000 tokens. Qwen3-Max Max has 400,000 tokens.
Are these models open weights?
Claude Sonnet 4.5 Pro is proprietary; Qwen3-Max Max is proprietary.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with Claude Sonnet 4.5 Pro for quality-sensitive work and Qwen3-Max Max for high-volume, well-scoped tasks. Run both on a sample of your own traffic before locking in a choice.