Model Comparison

Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B InstructWhich is better in 2026?

Claude Sonnet 4.6 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct — which is better?

Claude Sonnet 4.6 (by Anthropic) and Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct (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 4.6 outperforms in 2 benchmarks (SWE-Bench Verified, Terminal-Bench 2.0), while Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct is better at 0 benchmarks. Claude Sonnet 4.6 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose Claude Sonnet 4.6 if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 2 of 2 shared benchmarks
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Feb 2026

Choose Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct if…

  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
Want to compare interactively?Try the playground

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

2 benchmarks

Claude Sonnet 4.6 outperforms in 2 benchmarks (SWE-Bench Verified, Terminal-Bench 2.0), while Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct is better at 0 benchmarks.

Claude Sonnet 4.6 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sat Jun 13 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 specifies input context (200,000 tokens). Only Claude Sonnet 4.6 specifies output context (64,000 tokens).

Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Input200,000 tokens
Output64,000 tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Sat Jun 13 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Claude Sonnet 4.6 supports multimodal inputs, whereas Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct does not.

Claude Sonnet 4.6 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Claude Sonnet 4.6

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Claude Sonnet 4.6 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct uses Apache 2.0.

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

Claude Sonnet 4.6

Proprietary

Closed source

Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Claude Sonnet 4.6 was released on 2026-02-17, while Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct was released on 2025-01-31.

Claude Sonnet 4.6 is 13 months newer than Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct.

Claude Sonnet 4.6

Feb 17, 2026

3 months ago

1.0yr newer
Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct

Jan 31, 2025

1.4 years ago

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

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

Anthropic
Larger context window (200,000 tokens)
Supports multimodal inputs
Higher SWE-Bench Verified score (79.6% vs 69.6%)
Higher Terminal-Bench 2.0 score (59.1% vs 37.5%)
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Has open weights

Detailed Comparison

AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct

FAQ

Common questions about Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct.

Which is better, Claude Sonnet 4.6 or Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct?

Claude Sonnet 4.6 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Claude Sonnet 4.6 is made by Anthropic and Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct 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 4.6 compare to Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct in benchmarks?

Claude Sonnet 4.6 scores Tau2 Telecom: 97.9%, Tau2 Retail: 91.7%, GPQA: 89.9%, MMMLU: 89.3%, SWE-Bench Verified: 79.6%. Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct scores TAU-bench Retail: 77.5%, SWE-Bench Verified: 69.6%, BFCL-v3: 68.7%, Aider-Polyglot: 61.8%, TAU-bench Airline: 60.0%.

What are the context window sizes for Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct?

Claude Sonnet 4.6 supports 200K tokens and Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct 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 4.6 and Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct?

Key differences include multimodal support (yes vs no), licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct?

Claude Sonnet 4.6 is developed by Anthropic and Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.

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