Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct
Claude 3.5 Sonnet significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct is 26.7x cheaper per token.
Anthropic · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Claude 3.5 Sonnet outperforms in 3 benchmarks (AI2D, MMLU, MMLU-Pro), while Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct is better at 0 benchmarks. Claude 3.5 Sonnet significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
On price, Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct is roughly 26.7x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct also accepts a larger context window (262,144 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Claude 3.5 Sonnet
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 3 of 3 shared benchmarks
Choose Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct
- cost matters — it's about 26.7x cheaper per token
- you process long inputs — it offers a 262,144 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2025
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Claude 3.5 Sonnet outperforms in 3 benchmarks (AI2D, MMLU, MMLU-Pro), while Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct is better at 0 benchmarks.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Playground indexes and blind preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Claude 3.5 Sonnet ($3.00/1M tokens) is 30.0x more expensive than Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct ($0.10/1M tokens).
For output processing, Claude 3.5 Sonnet ($15.00/1M tokens) is 25.0x more expensive than Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct ($0.60/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Claude 3.5 Sonnet is more expensive than Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct accepts 262,144 input tokens compared to Claude 3.5 Sonnet's 200,000 tokens. Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct can generate longer responses up to 262,144 tokens, while Claude 3.5 Sonnet is limited to 200,000 tokens.
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Both Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct support multimodal inputs.
They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct
License
Usage and distribution terms
Claude 3.5 Sonnet is licensed under a proprietary license, while Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct uses Apache 2.0.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Proprietary
Closed source
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Claude 3.5 Sonnet was released on 2024-10-22, while Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct was released on 2025-09-22.
Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct is 11 months newer than Claude 3.5 Sonnet.
Oct 22, 2024
1.8 years ago
Sep 22, 2025
11 months ago
11mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
Claude 3.5 Sonnet is available from Anthropic, Bedrock, Google. Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct is available from DeepInfra.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs Qwen3 VL 4B Instruct.