Model Comparison

Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking

Claude Sonnet 4.6 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is 12.3x cheaper per token.

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Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

3 benchmarks

Claude Sonnet 4.6 outperforms in 3 benchmarks (GPQA, Tau2 Retail, Tau2 Telecom), while Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is better at 0 benchmarks.

Claude Sonnet 4.6 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Thu Apr 16 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking costs less

For input processing, Claude Sonnet 4.6 ($3.00/1M tokens) is 20.0x more expensive than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking ($0.15/1M tokens).

For output processing, Claude Sonnet 4.6 ($15.00/1M tokens) is 10.0x more expensive than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking ($1.50/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Claude Sonnet 4.6 is more expensive than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking.*

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

Lowest available price from all providers
Thu Apr 16 2026 • llm-stats.com
Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Input tokens$3.00
Output tokens$15.00
Best providerAnthropic
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking
Input tokens$0.15
Output tokens$1.50
Best providerNovita
Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue→

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Claude Sonnet 4.6 accepts 200,000 input tokens compared to Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking's 65,536 tokens. Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking can generate longer responses up to 65,536 tokens, while Claude Sonnet 4.6 is limited to 64,000 tokens.

Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Input200,000 tokens
Output64,000 tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking
Input65,536 tokens
Output65,536 tokens
Thu Apr 16 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Claude Sonnet 4.6 supports multimodal inputs, whereas Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking 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-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Claude Sonnet 4.6 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking 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-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Claude Sonnet 4.6 was released on 2026-02-17, while Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking was released on 2025-09-10.

Claude Sonnet 4.6 is 5 months newer than Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking.

Claude Sonnet 4.6

Feb 17, 2026

1 months ago

5mo newer
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking

Sep 10, 2025

7 months 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

Provider Availability

Claude Sonnet 4.6 is available from Anthropic. Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is available from Novita.

Claude Sonnet 4.6

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

Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking

novita logo
Novita
Input Price:Input: $0.15/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.50/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

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Key Takeaways

Anthropic
Larger context window (200,000 tokens)
Supports multimodal inputs
Higher GPQA score (89.9% vs 77.2%)
Higher Tau2 Retail score (91.7% vs 67.8%)
Higher Tau2 Telecom score (97.9% vs 43.9%)
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Less expensive input tokens
Less expensive output tokens
Has open weights

Detailed Comparison

AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking

FAQ

Common questions about Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking

Claude Sonnet 4.6 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Claude Sonnet 4.6 is made by Anthropic and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.
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-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking scores MMLU-Redux: 92.5%, IFEval: 88.9%, AIME 2025: 87.8%, WritingBench: 84.6%, MMLU-Pro: 82.7%.
Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is 20.0x cheaper for input tokens. Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs $3.00/M input and $15.00/M output via anthropic. Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking costs $0.15/M input and $1.50/M output via novita.
Claude Sonnet 4.6 supports 200K tokens and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking supports 66K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.
Key differences include context window (200K vs 66K), input pricing ($3.00 vs $0.15/M), multimodal support (yes vs no), licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.
Claude Sonnet 4.6 is developed by Anthropic and Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Thinking is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.