Claude Opus 4 vs QwQ 32B Preview
Wins 4 of 4 areas
Coding · Reasoning · Long documents · Following instructions
Wins 0 of 4 areas
—
Claude Opus 4 is the stronger all-rounder.QwQ 32B Preview is cheaper.
Scores updated · 17 tests both models report · How we compare
Where each one wins
Tests won in each of the four areas where both have results. Each piece is one test, so a longer bar means more evidence; grey means the two scored within a point of each other.
Long documents and following instructions rest on a single test each.
What it costs
Prices per million tokens, roughly 750,000 words. The bars show the cost of a million tokens read plus a million written.
QwQ 32B Preview costs 98% less for the same work.
The biggest differences
The tests each model wins by the widest margin, up to three each. Scores are out of 100.
Where Claude Opus 4 pulls ahead
- Reasons across sets of long documentsAA-LCR+42.6points ahead
- Graduate-level biology, physics and chemistry questionsGPQA Diamond+20.3points ahead
- Follows unfamiliar, precisely checkable instructionsIFBench+14.9points ahead
Where QwQ 32B Preview pulls ahead
No clear win on a test scored out of 100.
Every test, side by side
All 17 tests both models report. The winning score is in its model's colour; marks a score checked independently.
CodingClaude Opus 4
- LiveCodeBench v6Claude Opus 4 by 8.347.439.1+8.3
- SciCodeClaude Opus 4 by 439.835.8+4
ReasoningClaude Opus 4
- GPQA DiamondClaude Opus 4 by 20.379.659.3+20.3
- Humanity's Last ExamClaude Opus 4 by 4.912.37.3+4.9
Following instructionsClaude Opus 4
- IFBenchClaude Opus 4 by 14.953.738.8+14.9
Other results11 tests, not counted
Tests outside the eight areas. They are not counted above: several are summary scores built from other tests, or the same test under another name.
- Aider-PolyglotClaude Opus 4 by 49.870.720.9+49.8
- AIME 2025Claude Opus 4 by 42.275.533.3+42.2
- HMMT Feb. 2025Claude Opus 4 by 41.76018.3+41.7
- MMLU-ProClaude Opus 4 by 34.686.652+34.6
- LiveCodeBenchClaude Opus 4 by 20.470.450+20.4
- SuperGPQAClaude Opus 4 by 12.956.543.6+12.9
- AA IntelligenceClaude Opus 4 by 11.120.69.5+11.1
- MATH-500 (EM)Claude Opus 4 by 3.894.490.6+3.8
- IFEvalClaude Opus 4 by 3.587.483.9+3.5
- AIME 2024QwQ 32B Preview by 1.848.250+1.8
- LiveBenchClaude Opus 4 by 1.574.673.1+1.5
Questions people ask
Which is better, Claude Opus 4 or QwQ 32B Preview?
Claude Opus 4 wins all four areas where both have results: coding, reasoning, long documents and following instructions. QwQ 32B Preview wins none, but costs 98% less.
Which is better for coding?
Claude Opus 4. It wins 2 of the 2 coding tests both models report; QwQ 32B Preview wins none.
Which is cheaper?
Claude Opus 4 costs $15.00 per million input tokens and $75.00 per million output tokens; QwQ 32B Preview costs $0.66 and $1.00. That makes QwQ 32B Preview about 98% cheaper for the same work.
How do you compare the two?
We use the 17 benchmark tests both models have published scores on. The verdict counts the 6 tests in the eight capability areas, and a gap under one point (ten on rating-style scales) counts as a tie. The other 11 are listed but not counted, because several are summary scores or repeat a test. Each score is the one shown on the model's own page.