Qwen 3.8-Max
Qwen 3.8-Max
Alibaba's newest flagship, and the clearest sign Qwen is keeping its best work closed.
Updated
The read
3.8-Max is the top of Alibaba's line and is available only through the API, which is a real departure for the family that made its name publishing weights. It reasons well, handles a very long context and covers more languages than almost anything else here. If the reason you were interested in Qwen was that you could download it, this is not that model.
Where it shines
- Broadest language coverage of any frontier model
- Very long context handled reliably
- Priced well below Western flagships of similar standing
Worth knowing first
- API-only, unlike the open Qwen releases it is named after
- Still labelled a preview, so behaviour can change under you
Index score
81.2
Provisional. This score is read from the product's public capability, not from the one-prompt rebuild the fully reviewed entries went through, so treat it as a placing rather than a verdict.
- Rank
- 21 of 53
- Builds
- LLMs
- Category
- Frontier
- Output
- Text, code and images in, text out
- Pricing
- Paid only
- Best for
- Multilingual frontier work through a hosted API
Scores are our own editorial judgement, weighted craft 55, speed 10, control 15 and value 20.
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