Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Qwen3.5-397B-A17B
Claude Sonnet 4.6 (2026) and Qwen3.5-397B-A17B (2026) are frontier reasoning models from Anthropic and Alibaba. Claude Sonnet 4.6 ships a 1M-token context window, while Qwen3.5-397B-A17B ships a 262K-token context window. On MMLU PRO, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B leads by a hair. On pricing, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B costs $0.39/1M input tokens versus $3/1M for the alternative. This comparison covers specs, pricing, capabilities, benchmarks, provider availability, and production fit.
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is ~669% cheaper at $0.39/1M; pay for Claude Sonnet 4.6 only for coding workflow support.
Specs
| Released | 2026-02-17 | 2026-02-16 |
| Context window | 1M | 262K |
| Parameters | — | 397B |
| Architecture | decoder only | MoE |
| License | Proprietary | Apache 2.0 |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2025-12 | - |
Pricing and availability
| Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Qwen3.5-397B-A17B | |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $3/1M tokens | $0.39/1M tokens |
| Output price | $15/1M tokens | $2.34/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Qwen3.5-397B-A17B | |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | ||
| Multimodal | ||
| Reasoning | ||
| Function calling | ||
| Tool use | ||
| Structured outputs | ||
| Code execution |
Benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Qwen3.5-397B-A17B |
|---|---|---|
| MMLU PRO | 87.3 | 87.8 |
Deep dive
On shared benchmark coverage, MMLU PRO has Claude Sonnet 4.6 at 87.3 and Qwen3.5-397B-A17B at 87.8, with Qwen3.5-397B-A17B ahead by 0.5 points. The largest visible gap is 0.5 points on MMLU PRO, 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 Sonnet 4.6, reasoning mode: Claude Sonnet 4.6, function calling: Claude Sonnet 4.6, tool use: Claude Sonnet 4.6, and code execution: Claude Sonnet 4.6. Both models share multimodal input 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 Sonnet 4.6 lists $3/1M input and $15/1M output tokens, while Qwen3.5-397B-A17B lists $0.39/1M input and $2.34/1M output tokens on the cheapest tracked provider. A 70/30 input-output blend puts Qwen3.5-397B-A17B lower by about $5.63 per million blended tokens. Availability is 4 providers versus 1, so concentration risk also matters.
Choose Claude Sonnet 4.6 when coding workflow support, larger context windows, and broader provider choice are central to the workload. Choose Qwen3.5-397B-A17B 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 Sonnet 4.6 or Qwen3.5-397B-A17B?
Claude Sonnet 4.6 supports 1M tokens, while Qwen3.5-397B-A17B 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 Sonnet 4.6 or Qwen3.5-397B-A17B?
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is cheaper on tracked token pricing. Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs $3/1M input and $15/1M output tokens. Qwen3.5-397B-A17B costs $0.39/1M input and $2.34/1M output tokens. Provider discounts or batch pricing can still change the final bill.
Is Claude Sonnet 4.6 or Qwen3.5-397B-A17B open source?
Claude Sonnet 4.6 is listed under Proprietary. Qwen3.5-397B-A17B 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 Sonnet 4.6 or Qwen3.5-397B-A17B?
Claude Sonnet 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 Sonnet 4.6 or Qwen3.5-397B-A17B?
Both Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Qwen3.5-397B-A17B expose multimodal input. The better choice depends on benchmark fit, context budget, pricing, and whether your provider route exposes the same capability surface. Use this as a quick comparison signal, then confirm the provider-specific limits before committing to production.
Where can I run Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Qwen3.5-397B-A17B?
Claude Sonnet 4.6 is available on OpenRouter, Anthropic, AWS Bedrock, and GCP Vertex AI. Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is available on OpenRouter. Provider coverage can affect latency, region availability, compliance posture, and fallback options.
Continue comparing
Last reviewed: 2026-04-24. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.