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Claude 3 Sonnet vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct leads the LLM Stats Score 24.8 to 1.9. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is 10.0x cheaper per token.

Anthropic · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct leads the overall LLM Stats Score 24.8 to 1.9, ranking #151 overall.

In the 2 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct wins 2; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.

On price, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is roughly 10.0x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B 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 LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose Claude 3 Sonnet

  • you want predictable pricing at $3.00/M input and $15.00/M output

Choose Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

  • overall performance matters — it scores 24.8 and ranks #151 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning — it leads those capability indexes
  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 2 of 2 exact shared results
  • cost matters — it's about 10.0x 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.

Claude 3 Sonnet
Anthropic
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
1.9
#307
24.8
#151
Reasoning
1.8
#296
22.7
#160
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
0 of 2
2 of 2
Input price
$3.00 / M
$0.30 / M
Output price
$15.00 / M
$1.49 / M
Context window
200,000
262,144

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

3 shared
Index
Claude 3 Sonnet
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
Math
7.7#256
24.1#117
Finance
3.4#172
26.4#48
Legal
3.4#161
27.4#27
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

11 reported for Claude 3 Sonnet · 50 for Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

2 shared

Claude 3 Sonnet outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is better at 2 benchmarks (MMLU, MMLU-Pro).

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sun Sep 06 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct costs less

For input processing, Claude 3 Sonnet ($3.00/1M tokens) is 10.0x more expensive than Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct ($0.30/1M tokens).

For output processing, Claude 3 Sonnet ($15.00/1M tokens) is 10.1x more expensive than Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct ($1.49/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Claude 3 Sonnet is more expensive than Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct.*

* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens

Lowest available price from all providers
Sun Sep 06 2026 • llm-stats.com
Anthropic
Claude 3 Sonnet
Input tokens$3.00
Output tokens$15.00
Best providerAnthropic
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
Input tokens$0.30
Output tokens$1.49
Best providerDeepinfra
Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue→

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct accepts 262,144 input tokens compared to Claude 3 Sonnet's 200,000 tokens. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct can generate longer responses up to 262,144 tokens, while Claude 3 Sonnet is limited to 200,000 tokens.

Anthropic
Claude 3 Sonnet
Input200,000 tokens
Output200,000 tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
Input262,144 tokens
Output262,144 tokens
Sun Sep 06 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Both Claude 3 Sonnet and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct support multimodal inputs.

They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.

Claude 3 Sonnet

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Claude 3 Sonnet is licensed under a proprietary license, while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct uses Apache 2.0.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

Claude 3 Sonnet

Proprietary

Closed source

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Claude 3 Sonnet was released on 2024-02-29, while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct was released on 2025-09-22.

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is 19 months newer than Claude 3 Sonnet.

Claude 3 Sonnet

Feb 29, 2024

2.5 years ago

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

Sep 22, 2025

11 months ago

1.6yr newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Provider Availability

Claude 3 Sonnet is available from Anthropic, Bedrock, Google. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is available from DeepInfra, Novita.

Claude 3 Sonnet

anthropic logo
Anthropic
Input Price:Input: $3.00/1MOutput Price:Output: $15.00/1M
bedrock logo
AWS Bedrock
Input Price:Input: $3.00/1MOutput Price:Output: $15.00/1M
google logo
Google
Input Price:Input: $3.00/1MOutput Price:Output: $15.00/1M

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

deepinfra logo
Deepinfra
Input Price:Input: $0.30/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.49/1M
novita logo
Novita
Input Price:Input: $0.30/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.50/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Claude 3 Sonnet and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Claude 3 Sonnet
✓ Preferred
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Claude 3 Sonnet vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct.

Which is better, Claude 3 Sonnet or Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct?

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct leads the LLM Stats Score 24.8 to 1.9. Claude 3 Sonnet is made by Anthropic and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does Claude 3 Sonnet compare to Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct in benchmarks?

Claude 3 Sonnet scores ARC-C: 93.2%, GSM8k: 92.3%, HellaSwag: 89.0%, MGSM: 83.5%, BIG-Bench Hard: 82.9%. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct scores DocVQAtest: 97.1%, ScreenSpot: 95.4%, MMLU-Redux: 92.2%, OCRBench: 92.0%, MMBench-V1.1: 89.9%.

Is Claude 3 Sonnet cheaper than Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct?

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is 10.0x cheaper for input tokens. Claude 3 Sonnet costs $3.00/M input and $15.00/M output via anthropic. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct costs $0.30/M input and $1.49/M output via deepinfra.

What are the context window sizes for Claude 3 Sonnet and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct?

Claude 3 Sonnet supports 200K tokens and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct supports 262K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Claude 3 Sonnet and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (1.9 vs 24.8), context window (200K vs 262K), input pricing ($3.00 vs $0.30/M), licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Claude 3 Sonnet and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct?

Claude 3 Sonnet is developed by Anthropic and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.

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