# GPT-5.5 vs Qwen3.8-Max

Qwen3.8-Max is the cheaper of the 2: for the same tokens, 3 read for each 1 written, GPT-5.5 costs 3.8 times as much. Below are both price lists, what 8 everyday jobs cost a month on each, and how many tokens the same text takes on each, which can change the answer.

- Page, with a calculator for your own job: https://tecyfy.com/prices/compare/gpt-5-5-vs-qwen3-8-max
- Makers: GPT-5.5 from OpenAI, Qwen3.8-Max from Alibaba

## Price per million tokens, in US dollars

| | GPT-5.5 | Qwen3.8-Max |
| --- | --: | --: |
| Input | $5 | $2 |
| Cached input | $0.50 | $0.25 |
| Cache write | not listed | not listed |
| Output | $30 | $6 |
| Blend, 3 read for each 1 written | $11.25 | $3 |
| Batch input | $2.50 | not listed |
| Batch output | $15 | not listed |
| Long prompt input (above 272K on GPT-5.5) | $10 | $2 |
| Long prompt output | $45 | $6 |
| Context window, tokens | 1.05M | not listed |
| Capability score (Epoch Capabilities Index; GPT-5 is 150) | 159 | 157 |
| Longest answer, tokens | 128K | not listed |

## The same text, counted by each maker

Our lesson "How AI writes" (https://tecyfy.com/learn/how-ai-works/how-ai-writes), about 1,700 words of English:

- GPT-5.5: about 2,100 tokens. GPT-5.6 is counted with o200k_base, the tokenizer OpenAI publishes for it, so its count is exact. OpenAI has not published the tokenizer of GPT-6, so its count is the same o200k_base figure, marked as about.
- Qwen3.8-Max: about 2,100 tokens. Counted with the tokenizer Alibaba publishes with its open Qwen3.8 models. Alibaba does not say its API models use the same one, so the count is marked as about.

## What 8 everyday jobs cost a month on each

Each job at its usual runs a day, for 30 days, at the standard price.

| Job | Tokens in, out, runs a day | GPT-5.5 | Qwen3.8-Max |
| --- | --- | --: | --: |
| A chat question | 300, 500, 100 | $49.50 | $10.80 |
| A hard question, with thinking | 300, 1,400, 100 | $131 | $27.00 |
| A long report, summarised | 60,000, 2,000, 20 | $216 | $79.20 |
| A 40-turn agent task | 2,800,000, 40,000, 10 | $1,158 | $429 |
| A support bot's reply | 4,000, 300, 2,000 | $1,200 | $378 |
| Sort a message into a category | 250, 5, 50,000 | $2,100 | $795 |
| Read an invoice into fields | 1,500, 250, 1,000 | $450 | $135 |
| Review a pull request | 25,000, 4,500, 50 | $390 | $116 |

## Questions

### Which is cheaper, GPT-5.5 or Qwen3.8-Max?

Qwen3.8-Max is cheaper: $2 per million tokens read and $6 per million written, against $5 and $30 on GPT-5.5. On a mix of 3 tokens read for each 1 written, GPT-5.5 costs 3.8 times as much.

### Which is better, GPT-5.5 or Qwen3.8-Max?

They cannot be told apart on the Epoch Capabilities Index, an independent score from Epoch AI that combines over 50 benchmarks: GPT-5.5 scores 159 and Qwen3.8-Max 157, within the range of doubt around each (GPT-5 is 150). So choose on price and on 10 tasks of your own.

### What does a support bot cost a month on GPT-5.5 and Qwen3.8-Max?

At 2,000 replies a day, each reading 4,000 tokens (50 percent of them from cache) and writing 300, it costs $1,200 a month on GPT-5.5 and $378 on Qwen3.8-Max: GPT-5.5 costs 3.2 times as much for this job.

### What does an AI agent task cost on GPT-5.5 and Qwen3.8-Max?

One 40-turn task that reads 2,800,000 tokens in all, 90 percent of them from cache, and writes 40,000, costs $3.86 on GPT-5.5 and $1.43 on Qwen3.8-Max. At 10 tasks a day that is $1,158 and $429 a month.

### Does the same text take the same number of tokens on GPT-5.5 and Qwen3.8-Max?

No. Our lesson "How AI writes", 1,700 words long, is about 2,100 tokens on GPT-5.5 and about 2,100 on Qwen3.8-Max. Each maker cuts text its own way, and every extra token is paid for at the model's price.

### Can I pay less on GPT-5.5 and Qwen3.8-Max for work that can wait?

On GPT-5.5 only: with a batch, where you collect the answers later, it costs $2.50 per million tokens read and $15 written. Alibaba's price page lists no batch price for Qwen3.8-Max.

## Sources

- [OpenAI: API prices](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing)
- [Alibaba: API prices](https://www.qwencloud.com/pricing/api)
- [Epoch Capabilities Index, by Epoch AI (CC BY 4.0)](https://epoch.ai/benchmarks/eci)

## Other comparisons

- [GPT-5.5 vs GPT-6 Astra](https://tecyfy.com/prices/compare/gpt-5-5-vs-gpt-6-astra.md)
- [GPT-5.5 vs GPT-6.1 Sol](https://tecyfy.com/prices/compare/gpt-5-5-vs-gpt-6-1-sol.md)
- [GPT-5.5 vs GPT-6 Luna](https://tecyfy.com/prices/compare/gpt-5-5-vs-gpt-6-luna.md)
- [Qwen3.7-Max vs Qwen3.8-Max](https://tecyfy.com/prices/compare/qwen3-7-max-vs-qwen3-8-max.md)
- [Qwen3.7-Plus vs Qwen3.8-Max](https://tecyfy.com/prices/compare/qwen3-7-plus-vs-qwen3-8-max.md)
- [Qwen3.7-Flash vs Qwen3.8-Max](https://tecyfy.com/prices/compare/qwen3-7-flash-vs-qwen3-8-max.md)