Model Comparison

Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Qwen3.6-35B-A3BWhich is better in 2026?

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Qwen3.6-35B-A3B — which is better?

Claude Sonnet 4.5 (by Anthropic) and Qwen3.6-35B-A3B (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 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3.6-35B-A3B is better at 1 benchmark (GPQA). Qwen3.6-35B-A3B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose Claude Sonnet 4.5 if…

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

Choose Qwen3.6-35B-A3B if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 1 of 1 shared benchmarks
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Apr 2026
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

1 benchmarks

Claude Sonnet 4.5 outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3.6-35B-A3B is better at 1 benchmark (GPQA).

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Mon Jul 27 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
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Mon Jul 27 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Both Claude Sonnet 4.5 and Qwen3.6-35B-A3B 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

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Qwen3.6-35B-A3B 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

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Claude Sonnet 4.5 was released on 2025-09-29, while Qwen3.6-35B-A3B was released on 2026-04-16.

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B is 7 months newer than Claude Sonnet 4.5.

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Sep 29, 2025

10 months ago

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B

Apr 16, 2026

3 months ago

6mo newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Claude Sonnet 4.5 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2025-01-31, while Qwen3.6-35B-A3B'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 Qwen3.6-35B-A3B's cutoff date.

Claude Sonnet 4.5

Jan 2025

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B

—

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

Anthropic
Larger context window (200,000 tokens)
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B

View details

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Has open weights
Higher GPQA score (86.0% vs 83.4%)

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Claude Sonnet 4.5 and Qwen3.6-35B-A3B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Claude Sonnet 4.5
✓ Preferred
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 4.5
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B

FAQ

Common questions about Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Qwen3.6-35B-A3B.

Which is better, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Qwen3.6-35B-A3B?

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Claude Sonnet 4.5 is made by Anthropic and Qwen3.6-35B-A3B 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 Qwen3.6-35B-A3B 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%. Qwen3.6-35B-A3B scores MMLU-Redux: 93.3%, MMBench-V1.1: 92.8%, AI2D: 92.7%, AIME 2026: 92.7%, RefCOCO-avg: 92.0%.

What are the context window sizes for Claude Sonnet 4.5 and Qwen3.6-35B-A3B?

Claude Sonnet 4.5 supports 200K tokens and Qwen3.6-35B-A3B 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 Qwen3.6-35B-A3B?

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 Qwen3.6-35B-A3B?

Claude Sonnet 4.5 is developed by Anthropic and Qwen3.6-35B-A3B is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.

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