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Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads the LLM Stats Score 36.9 to 24.7. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is 16.2x cheaper per token.

Anthropic · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads the overall LLM Stats Score 36.9 to 24.7, ranking #76 overall.

In the 2 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Claude Sonnet 4.6 wins 2; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.

On price, Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is roughly 16.2x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct 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 4.6

  • overall performance matters — it scores 36.9 and ranks #76 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning and agents — it leads those capability indexes
  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 2 of 2 exact shared results
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Feb 2026

Choose Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

  • cost matters — it's about 16.2x 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 4.6
Anthropic
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
36.9
#76
24.7
#168
Reasoning
38.0
#68
22.5
#176
Agents
24.1
#58
12.6
#106
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
2 of 2
0 of 2
Input price
$3.00 / M
$0.20 / M
Output price
$15.00 / M
$0.88 / M
Context window
200,000
262,144

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

6 shared
Index
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
Math
34.4#48
23.8#125
Vision
25.4#49
17.9#86
Long context
11.8#64
15.0#51
Writing
27.3#4
16.3#39
Multimodal
20.4#71
20.6#70
1 more shared indexes
Finance
30.5#23
25.9#54
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

17 reported for Claude Sonnet 4.6 · 50 for Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

2 shared

Claude Sonnet 4.6 outperforms in 2 benchmarks (MMMU-Pro, OSWorld), while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is better at 0 benchmarks.

Claude Sonnet 4.6 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Wed Sep 23 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct costs less

For input processing, Claude Sonnet 4.6 ($3.00/1M tokens) is 15.0x more expensive than Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct ($0.20/1M tokens).

For output processing, Claude Sonnet 4.6 ($15.00/1M tokens) is 17.0x more expensive than Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct ($0.88/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Claude Sonnet 4.6 is more expensive than Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct.*

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

Lowest available price from all providers
Wed Sep 23 2026 • llm-stats.com
Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Input tokens$3.00
Output tokens$15.00
Best providerAnthropic
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
Input tokens$0.20
Output tokens$0.88
Best providerDeepinfra
Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue→

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct accepts 262,144 input tokens compared to Claude Sonnet 4.6's 200,000 tokens. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct can generate longer responses up to 262,144 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 VL 235B A22B Instruct
Input262,144 tokens
Output262,144 tokens
Wed Sep 23 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Both Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct support multimodal inputs.

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

Claude Sonnet 4.6

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Claude Sonnet 4.6 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Qwen3 VL 235B A22B 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 VL 235B A22B 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 VL 235B A22B Instruct was released on 2025-09-22.

Claude Sonnet 4.6 is 5 months newer than Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct.

Claude Sonnet 4.6

Feb 17, 2026

7 months ago

4mo newer
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

Sep 22, 2025

1.0 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

Provider Availability

Claude Sonnet 4.6 is available from Anthropic, DeepInfra. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is available from DeepInfra, Novita.

Claude Sonnet 4.6

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

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct

deepinfra logo
Deepinfra
Input Price:Input: $0.20/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.88/1M
novita logo
Novita
Input Price:Input: $0.30/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.50/1M
* 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 4.6 and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Claude Sonnet 4.6
✓ Preferred
Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct.

Which is better, Claude Sonnet 4.6 or Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct?

Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads the LLM Stats Score 36.9 to 24.7. Claude Sonnet 4.6 is made by Anthropic and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct 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 4.6 compare to Qwen3 VL 235B A22B 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 VL 235B A22B Instruct scores DocVQAtest: 97.1%, ScreenSpot: 95.4%, MMLU-Redux: 92.2%, OCRBench: 92.0%, MMBench-V1.1: 89.9%.

Is Claude Sonnet 4.6 cheaper than Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct?

Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is 15.0x cheaper for input tokens. Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs $3.00/M input and $15.00/M output via anthropic. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct costs $0.20/M input and $0.88/M output via deepinfra.

What are the context window sizes for Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct?

Claude Sonnet 4.6 supports 200K tokens and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct 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 4.6 and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (36.9 vs 24.7), context window (200K vs 262K), input pricing ($3.00 vs $0.20/M), licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct?

Claude Sonnet 4.6 is developed by Anthropic and Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.

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