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  5. Claude Sonnet 4vsQwen3 Max Thinking
Updated Feb 2026

Claude Sonnet 4vsQwen3 Max Thinking

Qwen3 Max Thinking is cheaper than Claude Sonnet 4 at $1.2/M vs $3/M input tokens.

Claude Sonnet 4 and Qwen3 Max Thinking compared across 53 shared prompts
SpecClaude Sonnet 4Qwen3 Max Thinking
Input price$3/M tokens$1.2/M tokens
Output price$15/M tokens$6/M tokens
Context window200K tokens262K tokens
WeightsClosedClosed
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedMay 2025Feb 2026
SWE-bench Verified72.7%75.3%
Side by side

Same prompt, both answers

Opening lines from 6 of the 53 prompts both answered. Formatting stripped, words untouched.

Historical Counterfactual Analysis

If the transistor had been invented in 1920 instead of 1947, trace the likely technological, economic, and geopolitical implications through…

Claude Sonnet 4892 words
The 1920 Transistor: A Technological Butterfly Effect Immediate Effects (1920-1930) First-Order Effects: Bell Labs (or similar research institution) achieves transistor breakthrough in 1920 Initial applications focus on telephone switching and radio amplification Vacuum tube industry faces early disruption, though…
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Qwen3 Max Thinking1,156 words
The 1920 Transistor Counterfactual: A Plausible Alternate Timeline Through 1980 (Assumptions: A functional point-contact silicon-germanium hybrid transistor is patented in 1920 by a U.S. team at Western Electric (AT&T). U.S. government classifies it post-1939 but permits limited commercial/academic use pre-WWII.
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Simple 7-Ingredient Recipe

Create a simple recipe for a delicious dish (sweet or savory) using only 7 common pantry ingredients. Include a creative name for the dish…

Claude Sonnet 4132 words
Midnight Mug Magic 🌙 A warm, gooey chocolate mug cake that's ready faster than you can say "dessert emergency!" Ingredients (7 pantry staples): 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour 4 tablespoons sugar 2 tablespoons cocoa powder 3 tablespoons milk 3 tablespoons vegetable oil 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract Pinch of salt…
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Qwen3 Max Thinking288 words
🌰 Pantry Peanut Magic Noodles Sweet, savory, and ready before delivery arrives. No fresh produce, dairy, or meat required. ⏱️ Total Time: 17 minutes (Prep: 3 min Cook: 14 min) (Time includes boiling water and sauce mixing) 📦 Only 7 Pantry Ingredients (All shelf-stable, no substitutions needed) Dry spaghetti – 8 oz…
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Estimate Complexity

Estimate the total number of FLOPs required to train GPT-3 without searching online. Explain your reasoning step by step.

Claude Sonnet 4306 words
I'll estimate the FLOPs required to train GPT-3 by breaking this down into components and making reasonable assumptions. Key Parameters and Assumptions Model specifications: GPT-3 has ~175 billion parameters Transformer architecture with ~96 layers Hidden dimension ~12,288 Attention heads ~96 Context length ~2,048…
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Qwen3 Max Thinking810 words
Step-by-Step Estimation of FLOPs to Train GPT-3 (All values derived from widely known technical details of GPT-3 as reported in OpenAI’s 2020 paper "Language Models are Few-Shot Learners," standard deep-learning compute scaling principles, and foundational ML literature. No internet searches used.)
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Character Voice Test

Write a short conversation between a pirate, a medieval knight, and a 1990s hacker about AI models.

Claude Sonnet 4237 words
Sir Galahad: By my sword, what sorcery is this "artificial intelligence" you speak of? 'Tis surely the work of dark wizards! Captain Blackbeard: Arrr, ye landlubber! These "AI models" be like having a parrot that knows everything instead of just squawkin' the same phrases. I could use one to find buried treasure!
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Qwen3 Max Thinking294 words
Setting: A misty, anachronistic crossroads. A glowing laptop rests on a weathered barrel. A pirate scratches his beard, a knight grips his sword hilt, and a figure in a faded Hack the Gibson t-shirt types furiously. Pirate: Arrr! What devilry be this glowing slate? Can it chart a course to buried treasure?
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Startup Pitch Teardown

Here's a pitch deck summary for a startup called "MindMeld AI": **Slide 1 - Vision:** "We're building the future of human-AI collaboration.…

Claude Sonnet 4371 words
Here are the 3 weakest claims in this pitch deck: "94% accuracy" claim (Slide 3) Why it's weak: No context provided for what constitutes "accuracy" (character-level? word-level? sentence-level?) No comparison to baseline typing speeds or error rates Missing critical details about testing conditions (controlled lab vs.
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Qwen3 Max Thinking709 words
Three Weakest Claims in the MindMeld AI Pitch Deck Below are the three statements most likely to erode investor, technical, or regulatory credibility—paired with precise critiques and actionable improvements. Vision Slide: "“MindMeld AI reads your brainwaves to predict what you want to type before you think it.”
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Futuristic Prediction

Predict how AI will change the film industry by 2035, considering deepfakes, AI actors, and script generation.

Claude Sonnet 4268 words
AI's Transformation of Film by 2035 Production Revolution AI Actors & Digital Performers Deceased star revivals: Convincing digital resurrections of iconic actors for new films, with estate permissions and ethical frameworks Synthetic lead actors: Fully AI-generated performers with consistent personalities across…
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Qwen3 Max Thinking713 words
AI in Film by 2035: A Realistic Forecast Balancing augmentation, ethics, and human creativity By 2035, film will be a hybrid craft—not a human-AI dichotomy. Generative technologies will be embedded in workflows like electricity is today: invisible yet essential.
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Our Verdict
Qwen3 Max Thinking
Qwen3 Max Thinking
Claude Sonnet 4
Claude Sonnet 4Runner-up

Not enough votes to call it. On the specs, Qwen3 Max Thinking has the edge: bigger model tier, newer.

Too close to call

Reviewing agent-written code?See a Brief PR report

API pricing

Cost per 1M tokens

Claude Sonnet 4
Input
$3.00
Output
$15.00
Qwen3 Max Thinking
Input
$1.20
2.5× cheaper
Output
$6.00
2.5× cheaper

Qwen3 Max Thinking is cheaper on both: 2.5× input, 2.5× output.

Where to run it

3 hosts

Claude Sonnet 42 hosts
HostInOutContextUptime
Amazon Bedrock$3.00 in·$15.00 out·200k·100% upGoogle Vertex AI$3.00 in·$15.00 out·1M—
Qwen3 Max Thinking1 host
HostInOutContextUptime
Alibaba Cloud$0.78 in·$3.90 out·262k·100% up

Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 21 Sep 2026.

Writing DNA

Style Comparison

Similarity
53%

Claude Sonnet 4 uses 5.6x more sentence length

Claude Sonnet 4
Qwen3 Max Thinking
64%Vocabulary63%
81wSentence Length14w
0.56Hedging0.23
4.5Bold4.5
6.6Lists2.9
0.70Emoji2.26
1.59Headings0.80
0.20Transitions0.06
Based on 28 + 27 text responses
Research

What we learned reading every model

FAQ

Common questions

Claude Sonnet 4 is developed by Anthropic while Qwen3 Max Thinking is developed by Qwen. Claude Sonnet 4 has a 200K token context window vs Qwen3 Max Thinking's 262K. You can compare their actual outputs across 53 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.

It depends on your use case. Claude Sonnet 4 and Qwen3 Max Thinking each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 53 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.

Claude Sonnet 4 costs $3/M input tokens and Qwen3 Max Thinking costs $1.2/M input tokens. Qwen3 Max Thinking is $1.80/M cheaper per input. Check their side-by-side outputs on Rival to see if the price difference is justified by quality.

This page shows a side-by-side comparison of Claude Sonnet 4 and Qwen3 Max Thinking across shared challenges. You can vote on which model produced the better output in a blind duel. Browsing and voting are free. No account is needed to look; signing in only saves your votes and likes.

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Same lab, same size, long tail

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Model pages

Claude Sonnet 4 logo
Claude Sonnet 459 outputs, specs and price
Qwen3 Max Thinking logo
Qwen3 Max Thinking58 outputs, specs and price
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