Qwen3.8 Max vs GPT-5.6 Sol
Qwen3.8 Max challenges GPT-5.6 Sol from below: three Intelligence Index points behind (58 vs 61) at less than a third of the blended price — $2/$6 against $5/$30 per million tokens. Both offer 1M-token context; Qwen adds video input and slightly faster serving. The value calculus strongly favors Alibaba.
Side by side
| Qwen3.8 Max | GPT-5.6 Sol | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Alibaba | OpenAI |
| Released | 2026-08-03 | 2026-07-09 |
| Context window | 1M tokens | 1M tokens |
| Modalities in | text, image, video | text, image |
| Input $/MTok | $2 | $5 |
| Output $/MTok | $6 | $30 |
| Open weights | No | No |
Benchmark deltas
| Benchmark | Qwen3.8 Max | GPT-5.6 Sol | Δ |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 58 | 61 | -3 |
Δ is Qwen3.8 Max minus GPT-5.6 Sol, in points. Shaded cell wins the row. Dashed values are vendor-published, not yet reproduced — methodology.
Cost calculator
- Qwen3.8 Max
- $160/mo
- GPT-5.6 Sol
- $550/mo
- Difference
- $390/mo
List prices as of 2026-08-11; excludes caching, batch, and long-context tiers — see model pages for tier notes.
Verdict
Sol's three-point lead is real but expensive: five times the output price for the margin. Qwen3.8 Max delivering 95% of the flagship measurement at $6-per-million output resets the frontier value curve the way DeepSeek reset the budget tier last year. Sol retains the deeper reasoning ceiling on max effort, OpenAI's toolchain, and Western-cloud compliance defaults that matter to many enterprises evaluating Alibaba Cloud dependencies. For unconstrained workloads, Qwen is now the rational frontier default; for regulated ones, the compliance question decides before the benchmark does.
Verdicts are analysis, not measurement, and are labeled as such per our editorial policy.
FAQ
- Is Qwen3.8 Max cheaper than GPT-5.6 Sol?
- Yes. Qwen3.8 Max costs $2 input / $6 output per million tokens against $5 / $30 for GPT-5.6 Sol (prices as of August 11, 2026).
- Which has the longer context window — Qwen3.8 Max or GPT-5.6 Sol?
- They match: both accept 1M tokens of context.
- Which is the more capable model, Qwen3.8 Max or GPT-5.6 Sol?
- GPT-5.6 Sol scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 61 (measured August 11, 2026) against 58 for Qwen3.8 Max (measured August 11, 2026).
Related news
Comparison published August 11, 2026; underlying data last changed August 11, 2026.