Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Qwen3-235B-A22B
Claude Sonnet 4.6 (2026) and Qwen3-235B-A22B (2025) are frontier reasoning models from Anthropic and Alibaba. Claude Sonnet 4.6 ships a 1m-token context window, while Qwen3-235B-A22B ships a 128k-token context window. On MMLU PRO, Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads by 4.5 pts. On pricing, Qwen3-235B-A22B costs $0.09/1M input tokens versus $3/1M for the alternative. This comparison covers specs, pricing, API access, capabilities, benchmarks, input and output token costs, and production fit for coding and agent workloads.
Qwen3-235B-A22B is ~3233% cheaper at $0.09/1M; pay for Claude Sonnet 4.6 only for coding workflow support.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | 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 | 1m | 128k |
| Cheapest output | $15/1M tokens | $0.58/1M tokens |
| Provider routes | 6 tracked | 5 tracked |
| Shared benchmarks | MMLU PRO leader | 4 shared |
Decision tradeoffs
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 holds a shared-benchmark lead on MMLU PRO, ahead by 4.5 points.
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 has the larger context window for long prompts, retrieval packs, or transcript analysis.
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and route flexibility.
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 uniquely exposes Vision, Multimodal, and Reasoning in local model data.
- Local decision data tags Claude Sonnet 4.6 for Coding, RAG, and Agents.
- Qwen3-235B-A22B holds a shared-benchmark lead on LiveCodeBench, ahead by 0.4 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 4.6
$6,150
Cheapest tracked route/tier: OpenRouter
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 OpenRouter and AWS Bedrock; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 is $14.42/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 adds Vision, Multimodal, and Reasoning in local capability data.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2026-02-17 | 2025-04-29 |
| Context window | 1m | 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 | 2025-08 | - |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Qwen3-235B-A22B |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $3/1M tokens | $0.09/1M tokens |
| Output price | $15/1M tokens | $0.58/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Qwen3-235B-A22B |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | Yes | No |
| Multimodal | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | No |
| JSON / Tool use | Yes | No |
| Structured outputs | Yes | Yes |
| Code execution | Yes | No |
| IDE integration | No | No |
| Computer use | Yes | No |
| Parallel agents | Yes | No |
Benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Qwen3-235B-A22B |
|---|---|---|
| MMLU PRO | 87.3 | 82.8 |
| Google-Proof Q&A | 89.9 | 86.1 |
| LiveCodeBench | 80.0 | 80.4 |
| HumanEval | 98.0 | 92.7 |
Continue comparing
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- Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs DeepSeek V4 Pro
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Kimi K2.6
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Composer 2.5
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs GPT-5.5 Pro
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Gemini 3.5 Flash
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs GLM-5.1
Popular comparisons for Claude Sonnet 4.6
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Last reviewed: 2026-07-26. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.