AI Models · Open-Source vs Paid

Qwen3.8 Max (0902) Open vs Muse Spark 1.1 Paid

Qwen3.8 Max (0902) vs Muse Spark 1.1 compared — price per token, context window, multimodality, openness and which to choose. Can the open-source model replace the paid one? Full 2026 breakdown.

Prices & specs refreshed from live data · olud.ai

Open-model prices = cheapest provider via OpenRouter; official maker rates may be higher.

Qwen3.8 Max (0902)OpenAlibaba
$2 /M input
$6 /M outputNo per-token fees if you self-host
TypeOpen-weight
Context window1M tokens
MultimodalYes
Self-hostYes
Muse Spark 1.1PaidMeta
$1.25 /M input
$4.25 /M outputManaged API (no infra to run)
TypeProprietary
Context window1M tokens
MultimodalYes
Self-hostNo
Choose Qwen3.8 Max (0902) if you want to self-host, keep your data private and skip per-token fees — it's open-weight and runs on your own hardware. Choose Muse Spark 1.1 if you want frontier capability through a managed API with zero infrastructure to run.

Qwen3.8 Max (0902) vs Muse Spark 1.1 specs

SpecQwen3.8 Max (0902)Muse Spark 1.1Winner
MakerAlibabaMeta–
TypeOpen-weightProprietaryQwen3.8 Max (0902)
Context window1M tokens1M tokensMuse Spark 1.1
Input price$2/M · free self-host$1.25/MMuse Spark 1.1
Output price$6/M · free self-host$4.25/MMuse Spark 1.1
Vision / multimodalYesYes= Tie
Tool / function callingYesYes= Tie
Self-hostableYesNo (API only)Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
LicenseApache 2.0ProprietaryQwen3.8 Max (0902)

Price gap & when to choose each

Choose Qwen3.8 Max (0902) if…
  • You want to self-host or run on your cloud
  • You prioritize data privacy & control
  • You are building open or reproducible AI
Choose Muse Spark 1.1 if…
  • You want frontier performance through a managed API
  • You need the longer 1M context window
  • You want the lower output price
  • You value reliability & ecosystem
  • You don't want to manage infrastructure

Feature comparison

CapabilityQwen3.8 Max (0902)Muse Spark 1.1
Open weights (downloadable)✓✗
Self-hostable✓✗
Runs fully offline✓✗
Vision / multimodal✓✓
Tool / function calling✓✓
1M+ context window✓✓

Benchmarks: Qwen3.8 Max (0902) vs Muse Spark 1.1

Independent benchmark scores measured by Artificial Analysis. Higher is better (except latency).

Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Muse Spark 1.1
Intelligence index
45.4
33.7
Coding index
76.2
71.3
GPQA
92.8%
89.8%
Humanity's Last Exam
43.1%
46.2%
Long Context Reasoning
80.3%
77.7%
SciCode
52.1%
58.8%
τ-Bench Banking
47.8%
31.8%
Terminal-Bench
88.8%
77.9%
Speed
35.8 tok/s
0 tok/s
Latency
1.84s
0s
Intelligence per $
15.1
16.9

Benchmark data by Artificial Analysis.

How Qwen3.8 Max (0902) and Muse Spark 1.1 score

🏆 Best value & openness: Qwen3.8 Max (0902) (4.8 vs 3.3 / 5)
CriterionQwen3.8 Max (0902)Muse Spark 1.1
Cost-efficiency4.04.0
Context window5.05.0
Openness5.01.5
Self-hosting5.01.0
Multimodality5.05.0

Scores come from live data — output price (cost), context length, open vs closed weights (openness & self-hosting) and vision/tool support (multimodality). Raw task quality isn't scored here; it depends on your benchmark — see the verdict.

What each model is

Qwen3.8 Max (0902) Open

Alibaba · Open-weight

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,...

Muse Spark 1.1 Paid

Meta · Proprietary

Muse Spark 1.1 is a multimodal reasoning model from Meta, built for agentic tasks. It accepts text, images, video, and PDF documents and returns text, with a 1M-token context window....

Other models in these families

These variants are tracked but not compared here — one page per family keeps the comparison readable.

Other variants tracked
Qwen3.8 2.4T A95BQwen3.8 27BQwen3.7 MaxQwen3.6 PlusQwen3.7 PlusQwen3.5-27BQwen3.6 27BQwen3.5-35B-A3BQwen3.5 397B A17BQwen3.6 35B A3BQwen3.5-122B-A10BQwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507Qwen3 Coder 480B A35BQwen3 Next 80B A3B ThinkingQwen3.5-9BQwen3 VL 235B A22B InstructQwen3 Next 80B A3B InstructQwen3 Coder 30B A3B InstructQwen3 VL 30B A3B ThinkingQwen3 Coder NextQwen3 32BQwen3 14BQwen3 VL 30B A3B InstructQwen2.5 72B InstructQwen3 30B A3BQwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507Qwen3 VL 8B InstructQwen2.5 Coder 32B InstructQwen3.8 Max PrimeQwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15Qwen3.6 FlashQwen2.5 VL 72B InstructQwen3 Coder FlashQwen-PlusQwen3.8 FlashQwen3.8 Omni FlashQwen3.5-FlashQwen2.5 7B InstructQwen3.7 Flash

Frequently asked questions

Is Qwen3.8 Max (0902) as good as Muse Spark 1.1?

Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is open-weight and competitive on many tasks, but Muse Spark 1.1 may still lead on the hardest reasoning and agentic work. The gap keeps narrowing — benchmark both on your actual use case before deciding.

Can I run Qwen3.8 Max (0902) locally?

Yes. Qwen3.8 Max (0902) has open weights, so you can self-host it on your own GPUs or run it via a low-cost API. Muse Spark 1.1 is API-only and cannot be self-hosted.

Qwen3.8 Max (0902) vs Muse Spark 1.1 — which should I pick in 2026?

Choose Qwen3.8 Max (0902) if you want to self-host, keep your data private and skip per-token fees — it's open-weight and runs on your own hardware. Choose Muse Spark 1.1 if you want frontier capability through a managed API with zero infrastructure to run.

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