Qwen3.8 Max Prime vs Qwen3 Max Thinking
Pick up to 3 models · pricing, context and capabilities · simulate your product cost
Data updated on September 30, 2026· 217 models
Qwen3.8 Max Prime is a higher-throughput variant of Qwen3.8 Max from Alibaba's Qwen team, served as a separate SKU at a higher price point.
- Reasoning estimated
- Speed estimated
- ▲
- Input
- Output
- Context
- ▲1 M tokens
- Max output
- ▲131 K
- Input, $ per 1M tokens
- $4.00
- Output, $ per 1M tokens
- $12.00
- Cache read, $ per 1M
- $0.500
- Batch (input / output)
- —
- Tool calling
- Yes
- Released
- ▲09/23/2026
- Knowledge cutoff
- —
- API id
- qwen/qwen3.8-max-prime
Qwen3-Max-Thinking is the flagship reasoning model in the Qwen3 series, designed for high-stakes cognitive tasks that require deep, multi-step reasoning.
- Reasoning estimated
- ▲
- Speed estimated
- Input
- Output
- Context
- 262 K tokens
- Max output
- 66 K
- Input, $ per 1M tokens
- ▲$0.780
- Output, $ per 1M tokens
- ▲$3.90
- Cache read, $ per 1M
- —
- Batch (input / output)
- —
- Tool calling
- Yes
- Released
- 02/09/2026
- Knowledge cutoff
- —
- API id
- qwen/qwen3-max-thinking
Which is the better API choice: Qwen3.8 Max Prime vs Qwen3 Max Thinking?
- Qwen3 Max Thinking: cheapest input (81% less than Qwen3.8 Max Prime)
- Qwen3 Max Thinking: cheapest output
- Qwen3.8 Max Prime: largest context (1 M)
- Qwen3.8 Max Prime: the newest (09/23/2026)
- Qwen3 Max Thinking: most reasoning (estimated)
- Qwen3.8 Max Prime: the fastest (estimated)
Qwen3 Max Thinking costs 81% less on input and 68% less on output than Qwen3.8 Max Prime ($0.780 / $3.90 versus $4.00 / $12.00 per million tokens). Qwen3.8 Max Prime accepts more context (1 M). On capabilities, Qwen3.8 Max Prime accepts images.
What would your product cost?
Estimate the monthly cost with your app's real volume. List prices, no cache or batch discounts.
With Qwen3 Max Thinking you save $80.70 a month versus Qwen3.8 Max Prime (75% less).
The 6 cheapest for this scenario (chat, last 12 months)
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- 3Qwen3.7 Flash Qwen$0.97
- 4DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 DeepSeek$1.55
- 5Ministral 3 3B 2512 Mistral$1.90
- 6Qwen3.5-Flash Qwen$2.02
Paste your prompt: tokens and cost per model
Rough estimate (about 4 characters per token). Nothing is sent to any server.
Cost of sending it 1,000 times (input only)
- 1Qwen3 Max Thinking Qwen$0.059
- 2Claude Sonnet 5.5 Anthropic$0.152
- 3Claude Sonnet 5 Anthropic$0.152
- 4Qwen3.8 Max Prime Qwen$0.304
- 5Claude Opus 5.5 Anthropic$0.304
- 6Claude Opus 5 Anthropic$0.380
- 7Claude Fable 5.1 Anthropic$0.760
- 8Claude Fable 5 Anthropic$0.760
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Frequently asked questions
Which is the better API choice: Qwen3.8 Max Prime vs Qwen3 Max Thinking?
Qwen3 Max Thinking costs 81% less on input and 68% less on output than Qwen3.8 Max Prime ($0.780 / $3.90 versus $4.00 / $12.00 per million tokens). Qwen3.8 Max Prime accepts more context (1 M). On capabilities, Qwen3.8 Max Prime accepts images.
Which is cheaper: Qwen3.8 Max Prime and Qwen3 Max Thinking?
Qwen3 Max Thinking is cheaper: $0.780 per million input tokens and $3.90 per million output tokens, versus $4.00 / $12.00 for Qwen3.8 Max Prime.
Which has more context: Qwen3.8 Max Prime and Qwen3 Max Thinking?
Qwen3.8 Max Prime accepts 1 M tokens of context; Qwen3 Max Thinking accepts 262 K.
Which is newer: Qwen3.8 Max Prime and Qwen3 Max Thinking?
Qwen3.8 Max Prime was released on 09/23/2026; Qwen3 Max Thinking on 02/09/2026.
What would 10,000 requests a month cost with Qwen3.8 Max Prime and Qwen3 Max Thinking?
With 1,500 input and 400 output tokens per request: Qwen3.8 Max Prime: $108.00; Qwen3 Max Thinking: $27.30 a month, at list price.
Where do the prices come from and how often are they updated?
From the public catalogs of OpenRouter, models.dev and LiteLLM, which publish each provider's list prices. They sync once a day and the last update date is shown above the comparison.
What does price per million tokens mean?
It is what the provider charges per million tokens you send (input) or the model generates (output). A token is roughly 4 characters. Output almost always costs more than input.
Sources: OpenRouter, models.dev and LiteLLM. Prices in USD per million tokens, list price, no volume discounts. Prompt tokens are an estimate; each provider's tokenizer may differ.