Claude Haiku 4.5 vs Qwen3-Max
Claude Haiku 4.5 (2025) and Qwen3-Max (2026) are compact production models from Anthropic and Alibaba. Claude Haiku 4.5 ships a 200k-token context window, while Qwen3-Max ships a 128K-token context window. On SWE-bench Verified, Qwen3-Max leads by 5.5 pts. On pricing, Qwen3-Max costs $0.78/1M input tokens versus $0.8/1M for the alternative. This comparison covers specs, pricing, capabilities, benchmarks, provider availability, and production fit.
Pick Qwen3-Max for coding; Claude Haiku 4.5 is better when coding workflow support matters more.
Specs
| Released | 2025-10-01 | 2026-01-15 |
| Context window | 200k | 128K |
| Parameters | — | — |
| Architecture | decoder only | decoder only |
| License | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2025-02 | 2025-12 |
Pricing and availability
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | Qwen3-Max | |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.8/1M tokens | $0.78/1M tokens |
| Output price | $4/1M tokens | $3.9/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | Qwen3-Max | |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | ||
| Multimodal | ||
| Reasoning | ||
| Function calling | ||
| Tool use | ||
| Structured outputs | ||
| Code execution |
Benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude Haiku 4.5 | Qwen3-Max |
|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | 73.3 | 78.8 |
| MultiChallenge | 50.5 | 41.2 |
Deep dive
On shared benchmark coverage, SWE-bench Verified has Claude Haiku 4.5 at 73.3 and Qwen3-Max at 78.8, with Qwen3-Max ahead by 5.5 points; MultiChallenge has Claude Haiku 4.5 at 50.5 and Qwen3-Max at 41.2, with Claude Haiku 4.5 ahead by 9.3 points. The largest visible gap is 9.3 points on MultiChallenge, which matters most when that benchmark mirrors your workload. Treat isolated benchmark wins as directional, because provider routing, prompt style, and tool access can move real application results.
The capability footprint differs most on code execution: Claude Haiku 4.5. Both models share vision, multimodal input, function calling, and tool use, so the practical split is not just feature count. Use those differences to decide whether the page is about raw model quality, agentic coding support, multimodal ingestion, or predictable structured API behavior.
For cost, Claude Haiku 4.5 lists $0.8/1M input and $4/1M output tokens, while Qwen3-Max lists $0.78/1M input and $3.9/1M output tokens on the cheapest tracked provider. A 70/30 input-output blend puts Qwen3-Max lower by about $0.04 per million blended tokens. Availability is 8 providers versus 1, so concentration risk also matters.
Choose Claude Haiku 4.5 when coding workflow support, larger context windows, and broader provider choice are central to the workload. Choose Qwen3-Max when vision-heavy evaluation and lower input-token cost are more important. For production, rerun your own prompts through the exact provider, region, and tool stack you plan to ship.
FAQ
Which has a larger context window, Claude Haiku 4.5 or Qwen3-Max?
Claude Haiku 4.5 supports 200k tokens, while Qwen3-Max supports 128K tokens. That gap matters most for long documents, large codebases, retrieval-heavy agents, and conversations where earlier context must remain visible.
Which is cheaper, Claude Haiku 4.5 or Qwen3-Max?
Qwen3-Max is cheaper on tracked token pricing. Claude Haiku 4.5 costs $0.8/1M input and $4/1M output tokens. Qwen3-Max costs $0.78/1M input and $3.9/1M output tokens. Provider discounts or batch pricing can still change the final bill.
Is Claude Haiku 4.5 or Qwen3-Max open source?
Claude Haiku 4.5 is listed under Proprietary. Qwen3-Max is listed under Proprietary. License labels affect whether you can self-host, redistribute weights, or rely only on hosted APIs, so confirm the upstream license before deployment.
Which is better for vision, Claude Haiku 4.5 or Qwen3-Max?
Both Claude Haiku 4.5 and Qwen3-Max expose vision. The better choice depends on benchmark fit, context budget, pricing, and whether your provider route exposes the same capability surface. Use this as a quick comparison signal, then confirm the provider-specific limits before committing to production.
Which is better for multimodal input, Claude Haiku 4.5 or Qwen3-Max?
Both Claude Haiku 4.5 and Qwen3-Max expose multimodal input. The better choice depends on benchmark fit, context budget, pricing, and whether your provider route exposes the same capability surface. Use this as a quick comparison signal, then confirm the provider-specific limits before committing to production.
Where can I run Claude Haiku 4.5 and Qwen3-Max?
Claude Haiku 4.5 is available on Microsoft Foundry, Anthropic, Snowflake Cortex, AWS Bedrock, and GCP Vertex AI. Qwen3-Max is available on OpenRouter. Provider coverage can affect latency, region availability, compliance posture, and fallback options.
Continue comparing
Last reviewed: 2026-04-24. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.