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Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking

Claude Sonnet 4.5 leads the LLM Stats Score 32.1 to 16.2. Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking is 9.1x cheaper per token.

Anthropic · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Claude Sonnet 4.5 leads the overall LLM Stats Score 32.1 to 16.2, ranking #110 overall.

In the 3 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Claude Sonnet 4.5 wins 3; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.

On price, Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking is roughly 9.1x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking 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 Sonnet 4.5

  • overall performance matters — it scores 32.1 and ranks #110 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning and agents — it leads those capability indexes
  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 3 of 3 exact shared results
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2025

Choose Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking

  • cost matters — it's about 9.1x cheaper per token
  • you process long inputs — it offers a 262,144 token context window
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Claude Sonnet 4.5
Anthropic
Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
32.1
#110
16.2
#227
Reasoning
31.3
#111
17.2
#214
Agents
17.2
#77
4.3
#159
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
3 of 3
0 of 3
Input price
$3.00 / M
$0.18 / M
Output price
$15.00 / M
$2.09 / M
Context window
200,000
262,144

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

4 shared
Index
Claude Sonnet 4.5
Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking
Math
25.0#115
18.8#176
Vision
10.7#119
10.7#117
Writing
26.7#5
13.7#54
Multimodal
12.6#107
13.4#100
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

9 reported for Claude Sonnet 4.5 · 50 for Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking

3 shared

Claude Sonnet 4.5 outperforms in 3 benchmarks (AIME 2025, GPQA, OSWorld), while Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking is better at 0 benchmarks.

Claude Sonnet 4.5 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Tue Sep 22 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking costs less

For input processing, Claude Sonnet 4.5 ($3.00/1M tokens) is 16.7x more expensive than Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking ($0.18/1M tokens).

For output processing, Claude Sonnet 4.5 ($15.00/1M tokens) is 7.2x more expensive than Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking ($2.09/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Claude Sonnet 4.5 is more expensive than Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking.*

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

Lowest available price from all providers
Tue Sep 22 2026 • llm-stats.com
Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 4.5
Input tokens$3.00
Output tokens$15.00
Best providerAnthropic
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking
Input tokens$0.18
Output tokens$2.09
Best providerDeepinfra
Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue→

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking accepts 262,144 input tokens compared to Claude Sonnet 4.5's 200,000 tokens. Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking can generate longer responses up to 262,144 tokens, while Claude Sonnet 4.5 is limited to 64,000 tokens.

Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 4.5
Input200,000 tokens
Output64,000 tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking
Input262,144 tokens
Output262,144 tokens
Tue Sep 22 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Both Claude Sonnet 4.5 and Qwen3 VL 8B 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 8B Thinking

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Qwen3 VL 8B 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 8B 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 8B Thinking was released on 2025-09-22.

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is 0 month newer than Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking.

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Sep 29, 2025

11 months ago

1w newer
Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking

Sep 22, 2025

1.0 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Claude Sonnet 4.5 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2025-01-31, while Qwen3 VL 8B 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 8B Thinking's cutoff date.

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Jan 2025

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking

—

Provider Availability

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is available from Anthropic. Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking is available from DeepInfra.

Claude Sonnet 4.5

anthropic logo
Anthropic
Input Price:Input: $3.00/1MOutput Price:Output: $15.00/1M

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking

deepinfra logo
Deepinfra
Input Price:Input: $0.18/1MOutput Price:Output: $2.09/1M
* 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 Sonnet 4.5 and Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Claude Sonnet 4.5
✓ Preferred
Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking.

Which is better, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking?

Claude Sonnet 4.5 leads the LLM Stats Score 32.1 to 16.2. Claude Sonnet 4.5 is made by Anthropic and Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking 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 Sonnet 4.5 compare to Qwen3 VL 8B 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 8B Thinking scores DocVQAtest: 95.3%, ScreenSpot: 93.6%, MMLU-Redux: 88.8%, MMBench-V1.1: 87.5%, InfoVQAtest: 86.0%.

Is Claude Sonnet 4.5 cheaper than Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking?

Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking is 16.7x cheaper for input tokens. Claude Sonnet 4.5 costs $3.00/M input and $15.00/M output via anthropic. Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking costs $0.18/M input and $2.09/M output via deepinfra.

What are the context window sizes for Claude Sonnet 4.5 and Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking?

Claude Sonnet 4.5 supports 200K tokens and Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking 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 Sonnet 4.5 and Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (32.1 vs 16.2), context window (200K vs 262K), input pricing ($3.00 vs $0.18/M), 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 8B Thinking?

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is developed by Anthropic and Qwen3 VL 8B Thinking is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.

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