Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Qwen3.8 Max Prime?

Claude Sonnet 4.5, at $20.61 per million tokens against $24 for Qwen3.8 Max Prime, three parts input to one part output, read on 24 Sept 2026.

Where is each one cheapest?

Claude Sonnet 4.5: $20.61 at Poe. Qwen3.8 Max Prime: nobody goes below the maker's own price with a reason we can point at, so $24 is the number to beat.

Can I buy both from one provider?

Yes. 5 providers sell both: NanoGPT, Kilo Gateway, Nous Portal, OpenRouter, Vercel AI Gateway. The cheapest of them for the two together is NanoGPT.

Which holds more context?

Both hold 1M tokens in one call.

Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Qwen3.8 Max Prime.

model vs model · prices as of 24 Sept 2026

Claude Sonnet 4.5 takes 2 of 5 rounds against Qwen3.8 Max Prime. It is also the cheaper of the two to run, at $20.61 per million tokens against $24.

Anthropicwins 2 rounds

Claude Sonnet 4.5

$20.61/M tokens

cheapest we can explain, at Poe · $2.32 per 1,000 pages

1M context · tool calling · reads images

Poe ↗

Alibaba Cloud

Qwen3.8 Max Prime

$24/M tokens

Alibaba Cloud list price, nothing below it is accounted for · $3.12 per 1,000 pages

1M context · tool calling · reads images

List price in (lower wins)

$3/M

$4/M

List price out (lower wins)

$15/M

$12/M

Cheapest we can explain (lower wins)

$20.61/M at Poe

none below list

Standard price (lower wins)

$24/M

Cost per 1,000 pages (lower wins)

$2.32

$3.12

Context

1M tokens

Open weights

not stated

Tool calling

yes

Structured output

yes

Reads images

yes

Reasoning

yes

Released

29 Sept 2025

23 Sept 2026

Providers selling it

Price we measure against

the maker's own

Trains on your prompts (no is better)

not stated

no provider to check

Providers selling both · 5

NanoGPT$24 / $12.50
Kilo Gateway$24 / $24
Nous Portal$24 / $24
OpenRouter$24 / $24
Vercel AI Gateway$24 / $24

Claude Sonnet 4.5 then Qwen3.8 Max Prime, per million tokens

Go further

open in the compare tool →every price for Claude Sonnet 4.5 every price for Qwen3.8 Max Prime

Add a third or fourth model, or switch the weighting, in the tool.

What moved in the last seven days

Claude Sonnet 4.5Requesty$3.30 / $16.50 $3 / $159% cheaper · 24 Sept 2026
Claude Sonnet 4.5Opper$3 / $15 $3.30 / $16.5010% dearer · 22 Sept 2026

Frequently asked

Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Qwen3.8 Max Prime?: Claude Sonnet 4.5, at $20.61 per million tokens against $24 for Qwen3.8 Max Prime, three parts input to one part output, read on 24 Sept 2026.
Where is each one cheapest?: Claude Sonnet 4.5: $20.61 at Poe. Qwen3.8 Max Prime: nobody goes below the maker's own price with a reason we can point at, so $24 is the number to beat.
Can I buy both from one provider?: Yes. 5 providers sell both: NanoGPT, Kilo Gateway, Nous Portal, OpenRouter, Vercel AI Gateway. The cheapest of them for the two together is NanoGPT.
Which holds more context?: Both hold 1M tokens in one call.

Prices exclude tax and are per million tokens, read 24 Sept 2026 from each provider's own catalog. The standard price blends three parts input to one part output; a page is 600 tokens in and 60 out. Bars are scaled to the larger value in each row.