Skip to main content

Claude Opus 4.5 vs Qwen 3.6 Max (preview)

Head-to-head comparison across 3benchmark categories. Overall scores shown here use BenchLM's provisional ranking lane.

Claude Opus 4.5

80

VS

Qwen 3.6 Max (preview)

72

1 categoriesvs2 categories

Verified leaderboard positions: Claude Opus 4.5 #7 · Qwen 3.6 Max (preview) unranked

Pick Claude Opus 4.5 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Qwen 3.6 Max (preview) only becomes the better choice if knowledge is the priority or you need the larger 256K context window.

Category Radar

Head-to-Head by Category

Category Breakdown

Agentic

Qwen 3.6 Max (preview)
62.5vs65.4

+2.9 difference

Coding

Claude Opus 4.5
65.9vs54.1

+11.8 difference

Knowledge

Qwen 3.6 Max (preview)
66.2vs73.9

+7.7 difference

Operational Comparison

Claude Opus 4.5

Qwen 3.6 Max (preview)

Price (per 1M tokens)

$null / $null

N/A

Speed

46 t/s

N/A

Latency (TTFT)

1.01s

N/A

Context Window

200K

256K

Quick Verdict

Pick Claude Opus 4.5 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Qwen 3.6 Max (preview) only becomes the better choice if knowledge is the priority or you need the larger 256K context window.

Claude Opus 4.5 is clearly ahead on the provisional aggregate, 80 to 72. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

Claude Opus 4.5's sharpest advantage is in coding, where it averages 65.9 against 54.1. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is Terminal-Bench 2.0, 59.3% to 65.4%. Qwen 3.6 Max (preview) does hit back in knowledge, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.

Qwen 3.6 Max (preview) is the reasoning model in the pair, while Claude Opus 4.5 is not. That usually helps on harder chain-of-thought-heavy tests, but it can also mean more latency and more token spend in real use. Qwen 3.6 Max (preview) gives you the larger context window at 256K, compared with 200K for Claude Opus 4.5.

Benchmark Deep Dive

Frequently Asked Questions (4)

Which is better, Claude Opus 4.5 or Qwen 3.6 Max (preview)?

Claude Opus 4.5 is ahead on BenchLM's provisional leaderboard, 80 to 72. The biggest single separator in this matchup is Terminal-Bench 2.0, where the scores are 59.3% and 65.4%.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, Claude Opus 4.5 or Qwen 3.6 Max (preview)?

Qwen 3.6 Max (preview) has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 73.9 versus 66.2. Inside this category, SuperGPQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, Claude Opus 4.5 or Qwen 3.6 Max (preview)?

Claude Opus 4.5 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 65.9 versus 54.1. Inside this category, NL2Repo is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for agentic tasks, Claude Opus 4.5 or Qwen 3.6 Max (preview)?

Qwen 3.6 Max (preview) has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 65.4 versus 62.5. Inside this category, QwenClawBench is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Related Comparisons

Last updated: April 20, 2026

The AI models change fast. We track them for you.

For engineers, researchers, and the plain curious — a weekly brief on new models, ranking shifts, and pricing changes.

Free. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.