Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Qwen3-235B-A22B
Claude Sonnet 4.5 (2025) and Qwen3-235B-A22B (2025) are frontier reasoning models from Anthropic and Alibaba. Claude Sonnet 4.5 ships a 200k-token context window, while Qwen3-235B-A22B ships a 128k-token context window. On MMLU PRO, Claude Sonnet 4.5 leads by 3.2 pts. This comparison covers specs, pricing, API access, capabilities, benchmarks, input and output token costs, and production fit for coding and agent workloads.
Claude Sonnet 4.5 is safer overall; choose Qwen3-235B-A22B when provider fit matters.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | Claude Sonnet 4.5 | Qwen3-235B-A22B |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | reasoning-heavy apps, multimodal apps, and tool-calling agents | provider-routed production |
| Decision fit | Coding, RAG, and Agents | Coding, RAG, and Long context |
| Context window | 200k | 128k |
| Cheapest output | $15/1M tokens | $0.58/1M tokens |
| Provider routes | 8 tracked | 5 tracked |
| Shared benchmarks | MMLU PRO leader | 2 shared |
Decision tradeoffs
- Claude Sonnet 4.5 holds a shared-benchmark lead on MMLU PRO, ahead by 3.2 points.
- Claude Sonnet 4.5 has the larger context window for long prompts, retrieval packs, or transcript analysis.
- Claude Sonnet 4.5 has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and route flexibility.
- Claude Sonnet 4.5 uniquely exposes Vision, Multimodal, and Reasoning in local model data.
- Local decision data tags Claude Sonnet 4.5 for Coding, RAG, and Agents.
- Qwen3-235B-A22B holds a shared-benchmark lead on Google-Proof Q&A, ahead by 2.7 points.
- Qwen3-235B-A22B has the lower cheapest tracked output price at $0.58/1M tokens.
- Local decision data tags Qwen3-235B-A22B for Coding, RAG, and Long context.
Monthly cost at traffic
Estimate token spend from the cheapest tracked input and output route or tier on this page.
Claude Sonnet 4.5
$6,150
Cheapest tracked route/tier: Microsoft Foundry
Qwen3-235B-A22B
$217
Cheapest tracked route/tier: Novita AI
Estimated monthly gap: $5,933. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.
Switch friction
- Provider overlap exists on AWS Bedrock and OpenRouter; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Qwen3-235B-A22B is $14.42/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
- Check replacement coverage for Vision, Multimodal, and Reasoning before moving production traffic.
- Provider overlap exists on AWS Bedrock and OpenRouter; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Claude Sonnet 4.5 is $14.42/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
- Claude Sonnet 4.5 adds Vision, Multimodal, and Reasoning in local capability data.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2025-09-29 | 2025-04-29 |
| Context window | 200k | 128k |
| Parameters | — | 235B |
| Architecture | Decoder Only | Decoder Only |
| License | Proprietary | Apache 2.0OSI-approved |
| Openness | Proprietary | Open source |
| Weights | Not released | Unknown |
| Code | Unknown | Unknown |
| Commercial use | Commercial use: conditional | Commercial use: permitted |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2025-12 | - |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Claude Sonnet 4.5 | Qwen3-235B-A22B |
|---|---|---|
| Input price |
| $0.09/1M tokens |
| Output price |
| $0.58/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Claude Sonnet 4.5 | Qwen3-235B-A22B |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | Yes | No |
| Multimodal | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | No |
| JSON / Tool use | Yes | No |
| Structured outputs | Yes | Yes |
| Code execution | No | No |
| IDE integration | No | No |
| Computer use | No | No |
| Parallel agents | No | No |
Benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.5 | Qwen3-235B-A22B |
|---|---|---|
| MMLU PRO | 86.0 | 82.8 |
| Google-Proof Q&A | 83.4 | 86.1 |
Continue comparing
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Last reviewed: 2026-07-26. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.