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Claude Opus 4 vs Qwen3-72B

A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.

Updated

Claude Opus 4 specs · Qwen3-72B specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceClaude Opus 4

    Claude Opus 4 publishes pricing ($75.00 / 1M output tokens) while Qwen3-72B does not.

  • Context windowClaude Opus 4

    Claude Opus 4 accepts 200K tokens vs 128K, 1.6× the room for long documents and codebases.

  • BenchmarksTie

    No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores.

  • ModalitiesClaude Opus 4

    Claude Opus 4 supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for Qwen3-72B.

  • OpennessQwen3-72B

    Qwen3-72B ships open weights (Apache-2.0); Claude Opus 4 is API-only.

On balance Claude Opus 4 edges ahead, winning 3 of 5 categories against Qwen3-72B's 1. Claude Opus 4 publishes pricing ($75.00 / 1M output tokens) while Qwen3-72B does not. Claude Opus 4 accepts 200K tokens vs 128K, 1.6× the room for long documents and codebases.

No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores. They differ in modality coverage, Claude Opus 4 handles text, vision while Qwen3-72B handles text, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Qwen3-72B ships open weights (Apache-2.0); Claude Opus 4 is API-only.

Both shipped within roughly a month of each other in 2025, so they share the same generation of training data and tooling. Claude Opus 4 is usually picked for coding llm and coding agent workloads, while Qwen3-72B sees more deployments in open source llm and commercial use llm. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecClaude Opus 4Qwen3-72B
ProviderAnthropicAlibaba
ReleasedMay 2025Apr 2025
Modalitiestext, visiontext
Context window200K tokens128K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1M$15.00 / 1M tokensPricing not published
Output · 1M$75.00 / 1M tokensPricing not published
Knowledge cutoff2025-03,
Open weightsNoYes (Apache-2.0)
API availableYesYes

Pricing at scale

What you'd actually pay at typical workloads. Numbers come from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day$158 vs ,
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$1,575 vs ,
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$2,700 vs ,

Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates).

Price calculator

Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • Claude Opus 4$5.25
  • Qwen3-72BPricing unavailable

Benchmarks compared

Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.

Claude Opus 4Qwen3-72B
  • MMLU,84.0
  • HumanEval95.0
  • SWE-bench Verified72.5
Pick Claude Opus 4 if

Claude Opus 4 fits when…

  • Set the SWE-bench bar at launch
  • Excellent for writing and code
  • Strong long-context handling
  • Long-context tasks, handles 200K tokens vs 128K for Qwen3-72B.
  • Multimodal needs covering vision.
Pick Qwen3-72B if

Qwen3-72B fits when…

  • Apache-2.0 license
  • Strongest open-weight on Chinese
  • Strong multilingual coverage
  • Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (Apache-2.0).
Don't want either?

Consider Claude Opus 4.7

Anthropic's mid-2026 flagship, ahead on SWE-bench, agent reliability, and writing quality.

See Claude Opus 4.7 specsClaude Opus 4 vs Claude Opus 4.7Qwen3-72B vs Claude Opus 4.7

Frequently asked

  • Is Claude Opus 4 or Qwen3-72B cheaper?
    Per-token pricing isn't published for at least one of these models, check each model's spec page for current rates.
  • Which has the larger context window?
    Claude Opus 4 accepts 200K tokens vs 128K for Qwen3-72B.
  • Is Claude Opus 4 or Qwen3-72B better for coding?
    Both Claude Opus 4 and Qwen3-72B are competitive on coding benchmarks. See each model's individual spec page for HumanEval and SWE-bench scores where published. For an opinionated pick, consult our Best LLM for Coding ranking.
  • Are either of these models open source?
    Qwen3-72B ships open weights (Apache-2.0). Claude Opus 4 is API-only.
  • When were Claude Opus 4 and Qwen3-72B released?
    Claude Opus 4 was released by Anthropic on 2025-05-22. Qwen3-72B was released by Alibaba on 2025-04-29.
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