AllocateClaude Opus 4.8 vs Qwen 3.5
On provider list prices, Qwen 3.5 costs $0.60 per million input tokens against $5 for Claude Opus 4.8: 8.3x apart. Output is $3.60 against $25 (6.9x).
Claude Opus 4.8
Qwen 3.5Specifications and provider list prices from the Allocate catalog, checked 2026-07-21.
What the numbers say
Take 1,000,000 requests a month at 1,200 input and 350 output tokens each. That workload costs $1,980 a month on Qwen 3.5 and $14,750 on Claude Opus 4.8 at list: a gap of $12,770, or 7.4x.
Qwen 3.5 reads 256K tokens per request against 200K for Claude Opus 4.8, 1.3x the window. That decides which one can take whole documents without splitting them.
Choose Claude Opus 4.8 for
- Hardest reasoning problems
- High-stakes analysis
- Escalation tier for agents
Choose Qwen 3.5 for
- Multilingual support agents
- Translation-adjacent workflows
- Fine-tuning under Apache 2.0
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 4.8 or Qwen 3.5?
Qwen 3.5, on this workload shape. At list prices it is $0.60/$3.60 per million tokens in and out against $5/$25 for Claude Opus 4.8. Billed on Allocate: $0.64/$3.85 against $5.35/$26.75.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen 3.5: 262,144 tokens (256K) against 200,000 (200K) for Claude Opus 4.8.
Can I fine-tune Claude Opus 4.8 or Qwen 3.5?
Qwen 3.5 publishes open weights (Apache 2.0) and can be fine-tuned on your own data. Claude Opus 4.8 is a closed model served over API; its weights are not available.
Related comparisons
Run the numbers on your workload
Or don’t choose. On Allocate a route name is the contract: point yours at one model today, swap to the other tomorrow, and compare them on your live traffic with per-token metering.