Claude Opus 4.5 vs Qwen3.6 Max Preview
Wins 1 of 6 areas
Coding
Wins 5 of 6 areas
Agents · Reasoning · Facts · Long documents · Following instructions
Qwen3.6 Max Preview is the stronger all-rounder.Claude Opus 4.5 is better at coding.
Scores updated · 18 tests both models report · How we compare
Where each one wins
Tests won in each of the six 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.
- ReasoningHard problems that need careful thinking01Qwen3.6 Max Preview1 of 3 tests · 2 ties
- FactsGetting facts right instead of making them up12Qwen3.6 Max Preview2 of 3 tests
- AgentsCarrying out multi-step tasks on its own01Qwen3.6 Max Preview1 of 1 test
- Long documentsFinding answers in very long texts01Qwen3.6 Max Preview1 of 1 test
- Following instructionsDoing exactly what it is asked01Qwen3.6 Max Preview1 of 1 test
- CodingWriting and fixing software21Claude Opus 4.52 of 3 tests
Agents, 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.
Qwen3.6 Max Preview costs 70% less for the same work.
The biggest differences
The three tests each model wins by the widest margin. Scores are out of 100.
Where Qwen3.6 Max Preview pulls ahead
- Follows unfamiliar, precisely checkable instructionsIFBench+18.6points ahead
- Avoids making up answers it doesn't knowAA-Omniscience · Non-hallucination+14.8points ahead
- Short factual questions, answered correctlySimpleQA Verified+6.3points ahead
Where Claude Opus 4.5 pulls ahead
- Answers hard knowledge questions correctlyAA-Omniscience · Accuracy+8.7points ahead
- Hard command-line tasks in a real terminalTerminal-Bench Hard+3.1points ahead
- Code for real scientific research problemsSciCode+2.6points ahead
Every test, side by side
All 18 tests both models report. The winning score is in its model's colour; marks a score checked independently.
CodingClaude Opus 4.5
- Terminal-Bench HardClaude Opus 4.5 by 3.14743.9+3.1
- SciCodeClaude Opus 4.5 by 2.649.546.9+2.6
- LMArena · WebDevQwen3.6 Max Preview by 13 rating points14691482+13 rating
ReasoningQwen3.6 Max Preview
- GPQA DiamondQwen3.6 Max Preview by 2.286.688.8+2.2
- CritPttie4.63.7tie
- Humanity's Last Examtie30.130.8tie
FactsQwen3.6 Max Preview
- AA-Omniscience · Non-hallucinationQwen3.6 Max Preview by 14.83953.8+14.8
- AA-Omniscience · AccuracyClaude Opus 4.5 by 8.746.637.9+8.7
- SimpleQA VerifiedQwen3.6 Max Preview by 6.345.752+6.3
Long documentsQwen3.6 Max Preview
- AA-LCRQwen3.6 Max Preview by 3.477.380.7+3.4
Following instructionsQwen3.6 Max Preview
- IFBenchQwen3.6 Max Preview by 18.65876.6+18.6
Other results6 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.
- τ²-Bench Telecom (AA run)Qwen3.6 Max Preview by 6.489.595.9+6.4
- AA Agentic IndexQwen3.6 Max Preview by 5.259.664.8+5.2
- AA-OmniscienceClaude Opus 4.5 by 4.8149.2+4.8
- Artificial Analysis Coding IndexClaude Opus 4.5 by 2.947.844.9+2.9
- AA Intelligencetie29.128.4tie
- frontiermath_tier_4_v1tie4.24.2tie
Questions people ask
Which is better, Claude Opus 4.5 or Qwen3.6 Max Preview?
Qwen3.6 Max Preview wins five of the six areas where both have results: agents, reasoning, facts, long documents and following instructions. Claude Opus 4.5 wins coding.
Which is better for coding?
Claude Opus 4.5. It wins 2 of the 3 coding tests both models report; Qwen3.6 Max Preview wins 1.
Which is cheaper?
Claude Opus 4.5 costs $5.00 per million input tokens and $25.00 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 Max Preview costs $1.30 and $7.80. That makes Qwen3.6 Max Preview about 70% cheaper for the same work.
How do you compare the two?
We use the 18 benchmark tests both models have published scores on. The verdict counts the 12 tests in the eight capability areas, and a gap under one point (ten on rating-style scales) counts as a tie. The other 6 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.