Claude Opus 4.6 vs Qwen3.5-35B-A3B
Claude Opus 4.6 (2026) and Qwen3.5-35B-A3B (2026) are frontier-tier reasoning models from Anthropic and Alibaba. Claude Opus 4.6 ships a 1M-token context window, while Qwen3.5-35B-A3B ships a 262K-token context window. On Google-Proof Q&A, Qwen3.5-35B-A3B leads by a hair. On pricing, Qwen3.5-35B-A3B costs $0.16/1M input tokens versus $5/1M for the alternative. This comparison covers specs, pricing, capabilities, benchmarks, provider availability, and production fit.
Qwen3.5-35B-A3B is ~2977% cheaper at $0.16/1M; pay for Claude Opus 4.6 only for coding workflow support.
Specs
| Released | 2026-02-05 | 2026-02-24 |
| Context window | 1M | 262K |
| Parameters | — | 35B |
| Architecture | decoder only | mixture of experts |
| License | Proprietary | Apache 2.0 |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2025-12 | - |
Pricing and availability
| Claude Opus 4.6 | Qwen3.5-35B-A3B | |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $5/1M tokens | $0.16/1M tokens |
| Output price | $25/1M tokens | $1.3/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Claude Opus 4.6 | Qwen3.5-35B-A3B | |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | ||
| Multimodal | ||
| Reasoning | ||
| Function calling | ||
| Tool use | ||
| Structured outputs | ||
| Code execution |
Benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude Opus 4.6 | Qwen3.5-35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| Google-Proof Q&A | 84.2 | 84.5 |
Deep dive
On shared benchmark coverage, Google-Proof Q&A has Claude Opus 4.6 at 84.2 and Qwen3.5-35B-A3B at 84.5, with Qwen3.5-35B-A3B ahead by 0.3 points. The largest visible gap is 0.3 points on Google-Proof Q&A, which matters most when that benchmark mirrors your workload. Treat isolated benchmark wins as directional, because provider routing, prompt style, and tool access can move real application results.
The capability footprint differs most on vision: Claude Opus 4.6, multimodal input: Claude Opus 4.6, and code execution: Claude Opus 4.6. Both models share reasoning mode, function calling, tool use, and structured outputs, so the practical split is not just feature count. Use those differences to decide whether the page is about raw model quality, agentic coding support, multimodal ingestion, or predictable structured API behavior.
For cost, Claude Opus 4.6 lists $5/1M input and $25/1M output tokens, while Qwen3.5-35B-A3B lists $0.16/1M input and $1.3/1M output tokens on the cheapest tracked provider. A 70/30 input-output blend puts Qwen3.5-35B-A3B lower by about $10.50 per million blended tokens. Availability is 4 providers versus 1, so concentration risk also matters.
Choose Claude Opus 4.6 when coding workflow support, larger context windows, and broader provider choice are central to the workload. Choose Qwen3.5-35B-A3B when provider fit and lower input-token cost are more important. For production, rerun your own prompts through the exact provider, region, and tool stack you plan to ship.
FAQ
Which has a larger context window, Claude Opus 4.6 or Qwen3.5-35B-A3B?
Claude Opus 4.6 supports 1M tokens, while Qwen3.5-35B-A3B supports 262K tokens. That gap matters most for long documents, large codebases, retrieval-heavy agents, and conversations where earlier context must remain visible.
Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 4.6 or Qwen3.5-35B-A3B?
Qwen3.5-35B-A3B is cheaper on tracked token pricing. Claude Opus 4.6 costs $5/1M input and $25/1M output tokens. Qwen3.5-35B-A3B costs $0.16/1M input and $1.3/1M output tokens. Provider discounts or batch pricing can still change the final bill.
Is Claude Opus 4.6 or Qwen3.5-35B-A3B open source?
Claude Opus 4.6 is listed under Proprietary. Qwen3.5-35B-A3B is listed under Apache 2.0. License labels affect whether you can self-host, redistribute weights, or rely only on hosted APIs, so confirm the upstream license before deployment.
Which is better for vision, Claude Opus 4.6 or Qwen3.5-35B-A3B?
Claude Opus 4.6 has the clearer documented vision signal in this comparison. If vision is mission-critical, validate it against the provider endpoint because model-level support and API-level exposure can differ.
Which is better for multimodal input, Claude Opus 4.6 or Qwen3.5-35B-A3B?
Claude Opus 4.6 has the clearer documented multimodal input signal in this comparison. If multimodal input is mission-critical, validate it against the provider endpoint because model-level support and API-level exposure can differ.
Where can I run Claude Opus 4.6 and Qwen3.5-35B-A3B?
Claude Opus 4.6 is available on OpenRouter, Anthropic, AWS Bedrock, and GCP Vertex AI. Qwen3.5-35B-A3B is available on OpenRouter. Provider coverage can affect latency, region availability, compliance posture, and fallback options.
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Last reviewed: 2026-04-24. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.