Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Qwen3.5 397B-A17B
Side-by-side benchmark comparison across coding, math, reasoning, speed, and pricing.
Claude Sonnet 4.6 by Anthropic wins on 6 of 11 benchmarks against Qwen3.5 397B-A17B by Alibaba, which leads on 5. This head-to-head comparison covers coding, math, reasoning, speed, and pricing metrics from our benchmark data.
Category-by-Category Breakdown
General Intelligence: In general intelligence, Claude Sonnet 4.6 scores 30.5 on AA Intelligence Index compared to Qwen3.5 397B-A17B's 19.1.
Coding: In coding, Claude Sonnet 4.6 scores 63 on AA Coding Index compared to Qwen3.5 397B-A17B's 48.2, while Claude Sonnet 4.6 scores 1274 on Design Arena ELO compared to Qwen3.5 397B-A17B's 1183, while Claude Sonnet 4.6 scores 1297 on Website Arena ELO compared to Qwen3.5 397B-A17B's 1203.
Reasoning: In reasoning, Qwen3.5 397B-A17B scores 85.9% on GPQA Diamond compared to Claude Sonnet 4.6's 54.3%, while Claude Sonnet 4.6 scores 33.1 on AA Agentic Index compared to Qwen3.5 397B-A17B's 10.6, while Qwen3.5 397B-A17B scores 78.5% on τ²-Bench Airline compared to Claude Sonnet 4.6's 75.3%.
Context: In context, Claude Sonnet 4.6 scores 1.0M on Context Length compared to Qwen3.5 397B-A17B's 262K.
Pricing Comparison
Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs $3.0/1M input tokens and $15.0/1M output tokens, while Qwen3.5 397B-A17B costs $0.55/1M input and $3.5/1M output. Qwen3.5 397B-A17B is the more affordable option for API usage.
Verdict
Qwen3.5 397B-A17B leads across the board in affordability, making it the stronger overall choice in this comparison.
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Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Qwen3.5 397B-A17B — FAQ
Which is better, Claude Sonnet 4.6 or Qwen3.5 397B-A17B?
Claude Sonnet 4.6 wins on more benchmarks overall (6 vs 5). However, the best choice depends on your specific needs — each model excels in different areas.
How does Claude Sonnet 4.6 compare to Qwen3.5 397B-A17B for coding?
SWE-bench Verified data is not available for both models. Check the detailed comparison charts above for other coding-related metrics.
Is Claude Sonnet 4.6 cheaper than Qwen3.5 397B-A17B?
Yes, Qwen3.5 397B-A17B is cheaper. Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs $3.0/1M input and $15.0/1M output tokens. Qwen3.5 397B-A17B costs $0.55/1M input and $3.5/1M output tokens.
Which is faster, Claude Sonnet 4.6 or Qwen3.5 397B-A17B?
Output speed data is not available for both models. Check the speed section of the comparison above for available performance data.
What benchmarks does the Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Qwen3.5 397B-A17B comparison cover?
This comparison covers 11 benchmarks including GPQA Diamond, Input Cost, Output Cost, Context Length, AA Intelligence Index, AA Coding Index, AA Agentic Index, Cached Input Cost, and more. Metrics span general intelligence, coding, math, reasoning, speed, and cost categories.