Model Comparison

Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Qwen3 VL 32B ThinkingWhich is better in 2026?

Claude Sonnet 4.5 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking — which is better?

Claude Sonnet 4.5 (by Anthropic) and Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking (by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team) are two of the AI models people compare most. Here is how they stack up on benchmarks, price and capabilities, and which one to pick in 2026.

Claude Sonnet 4.5 outperforms in 3 benchmarks (AIME 2025, GPQA, OSWorld), while Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking is better at 0 benchmarks. Claude Sonnet 4.5 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose Claude Sonnet 4.5 if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 3 of 3 shared benchmarks
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2025

Choose Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking if…

  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

3 benchmarks

Claude Sonnet 4.5 outperforms in 3 benchmarks (AIME 2025, GPQA, OSWorld), while Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking is better at 0 benchmarks.

Claude Sonnet 4.5 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Tue Jul 21 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Claude Sonnet 4.5 specifies input context (200,000 tokens). Only Claude Sonnet 4.5 specifies output context (64,000 tokens).

Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 4.5
Input200,000 tokens
Output64,000 tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Tue Jul 21 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Both Claude Sonnet 4.5 and Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking support multimodal inputs.

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

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking uses Apache 2.0.

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

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Proprietary

Closed source

Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Claude Sonnet 4.5 was released on 2025-09-29, while Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking was released on 2025-09-22.

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is 0 month newer than Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking.

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Sep 29, 2025

9 months ago

1w newer
Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking

Sep 22, 2025

10 months ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Claude Sonnet 4.5 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2025-01-31, while Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Claude Sonnet 4.5's training data extends to 2025-01-31, but cannot make a direct comparison without Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking's cutoff date.

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Jan 2025

Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking

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Outputs Comparison

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Key Takeaways

Anthropic
Larger context window (200,000 tokens)
Higher AIME 2025 score (87.0% vs 83.7%)
Higher GPQA score (83.4% vs 73.1%)
Higher OSWorld score (61.4% vs 41.0%)
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking

View details

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Has open weights

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Claude Sonnet 4.5 and Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Claude Sonnet 4.5
✓ Preferred
Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 4.5
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking

FAQ

Common questions about Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking.

Which is better, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking?

Claude Sonnet 4.5 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Claude Sonnet 4.5 is made by Anthropic and Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does Claude Sonnet 4.5 compare to Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking in benchmarks?

Claude Sonnet 4.5 scores MMMLU: 89.1%, AIME 2025: 87.0%, TAU-bench Retail: 86.2%, GPQA: 83.4%, MMMUval: 77.8%. Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking scores DocVQAtest: 96.1%, ScreenSpot: 95.7%, MMLU-Redux: 91.9%, MMBench-V1.1: 90.8%, CharXiv-D: 90.2%.

What are the context window sizes for Claude Sonnet 4.5 and Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking?

Claude Sonnet 4.5 supports 200K tokens and Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking supports an unknown number of tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Claude Sonnet 4.5 and Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking?

Key differences include licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Claude Sonnet 4.5 and Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking?

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is developed by Anthropic and Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.

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