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GPT-5.6 Terra vs Qwen 3.8 Max — Price, Context, and Capability Compared

Verdict

GPT-5.6 Terra costs 1.6× more per blended million tokens than Qwen 3.8 Max. GPT-5.6 Terra has the larger context window (400,000 tokens). Default to Qwen 3.8 Max unless you specifically need GPT-5.6 Terra's edge.

Spec comparison

GPT-5.6 TerraQwen 3.8 Max
Price (input)$2.00/M$1.60/M
Price (output)$12.00/M$6.40/M
Blended price$4.50/M$2.80/M
Context window400,000 tokens256,000 tokens
Max output128,000 tokens32,768 tokens
Modalitiestext, visiontext, vision
Reasoning modeYesYes
Released2026-062026-06
Speed78 t/s47 t/s

Cost at scale (3:1 blended)

Tokens / monthGPT-5.6 TerraQwen 3.8 MaxDelta
1,000,000$4.50$2.80$1.70 (1.6×)
10,000,000$45.00$28.00$17.00 (1.6×)
100,000,000$450.00$280.00$170.00 (1.6×)

Choose GPT-5.6 Terra if…

  • Balanced cost-to-intelligence ratio
  • Reasoning mode available on demand
  • Same 400K context as Sol
  • Everyday production workloads that need strong quality without Sol-tier pricing.

Choose Qwen 3.8 Max if…

  • Alibaba’s flagship proprietary model
  • Frontier-class reasoning and long-context understanding
  • Served directly from Alibaba Cloud
  • Frontier-class reasoning outside the US big-lab ecosystem.

Run this exact matchup right now

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FAQ

Is GPT-5.6 Terra cheaper than Qwen 3.8 Max?

Qwen 3.8 Max is cheaper, at $2.80 per million blended tokens vs $4.50 for GPT-5.6 Terra.

Which has the bigger context window, GPT-5.6 Terra or Qwen 3.8 Max?

GPT-5.6 Terra has the larger context window: 400,000 tokens vs 256,000.

Can GPT-5.6 Terra replace Qwen 3.8 Max for coding?

Both are viable for coding. Balanced cost-to-intelligence ratio (GPT-5.6 Terra) vs Alibaba’s flagship proprietary model (Qwen 3.8 Max) — pick based on which strength matters more for your workload.

Which is faster, GPT-5.6 Terra or Qwen 3.8 Max?

GPT-5.6 Terra is faster: 78 t/s vs 47 t/s, measured on our speed benchmarks.

Related

GPT-5.6 Terra pricingQwen 3.8 Max pricingvs Claude Opus 4.8vs Grok 4.3vs Gemini 3.1 Provs GPT-4 TurboPremium model tests

Pricing verified 2026-07-10. Specs verified 2026-08-08.