Qwen: Qwen3.8 Max (0902) API Pricing
Qwen: Qwen3.8 Max (0902) costs $2.00 per 1M input tokens and $6.00 per 1M output tokens (cache reads: $0.250). Context window: 1M. Prices verified 2026-10-21 · source
Alternatives to consider
97% cheaper with nearly identical quality (43.4 vs 45.4)
+14.6 quality points for 5% more
Rebuilt daily from our snapshot archive — the chart appears once a model has 5+ snapshots of history.
From our own daily snapshot archive — independent of provider announcements.
Intelligence measures reasoning/knowledge/coding benchmarks. A high score with a low blended price = value pick; check the value chart to see where this model lands.
Token economics
| Token type | Price | vs base input |
|---|---|---|
| Standard input | $2.00 | — |
| Cache read | $0.250 | −88% |
| Output | $6.00 | — |
Prompt caching stores repeated context server-side: reads cost far less, but writes carry a one-time premium.
Higher effort = deeper thinking = more reasoning tokens billed as output.
What would Qwen: Qwen3.8 Max (0902) cost you per month?
| Workload | Requests/mo | Avg tokens (in/out) | Est. monthly cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Light chatbot | 10,000 | 800 / 400 | $40.00 |
| Coding agent | 5,000 | 8,000 / 2,000 | $140.00 |
| RAG pipeline | 30,000 | 4,000 / 500 | $330.00 |
| Doc summarizer | 2,000 | 20,000 / 1,000 | $92.00 |
Estimates use list prices without prompt caching. Caching can cut input cost by up to 90% on repeated context.
About Qwen: Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Qwen3.8 Max 0902 is an updated snapshot of Qwen3.8 Max from Alibaba's Qwen team. It is a 2.4-trillion-parameter mixture-of-experts model that accepts text, image, and video input and returns text,...
Compare Qwen: Qwen3.8 Max (0902) with
- Max (0902) vs OpenAI: GPT-5.6 Terra Pro
- Max (0902) vs Anthropic: Claude Fable 5
- Max (0902) vs Anthropic: Claude Opus 5
- Max (0902) vs OpenAI: GPT-5.6 Sol
Popular head-to-heads — see all on the comparisons index.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Qwen: Qwen3.8 Max (0902) cost?
Qwen: Qwen3.8 Max (0902) costs $2.00 per 1M input tokens and $6.00 per 1M output tokens; cached input tokens cost $0.250 per 1M. Verified 2026-10-21 — provider source.
What is the context window?
1M tokens, with up to 131K output tokens per response. That's roughly 1250 pages of text in a single request.
Does it support prompt caching?
Yes — cached input is $0.250/1M, about 88% cheaper than standard input. Agents and RAG workloads with repeated context benefit most.
What's a cheaper alternative?
ScaleDown: Summarize saves about 99% on a typical workload with comparable quality.
Official resources
- Qwen: Qwen3.8 Max (0902) on OpenRouter — live endpoint, pricing source of record.
- Artificial Analysis leaderboard → — independent intelligence and performance rankings.
- Qwen GitHub → — official model repositories and release notes.
- Shred your current bill — paste a CSV and see if switching saves money.