Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Qwen3.5-397B-A17B
Claude Sonnet 4.6 (2026) and Qwen3.5-397B-A17B (2026) are frontier-tier 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 0.5 pts. On pricing, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B costs $0.39/1M 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.
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is ~669% cheaper at $0.39/1M; pay for Claude Sonnet 4.6 only for coding workflow support.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Qwen3.5-397B-A17B |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | reasoning-heavy apps, multimodal apps, and tool-calling agents | reasoning-heavy apps, multimodal apps, and tool-calling agents |
| Decision fit | Coding, RAG, and Agents | Coding, RAG, and Agents |
| Context window | 1m | 262k |
| Cheapest output | $15/1M tokens | $2.34/1M tokens |
| Provider routes | 6 tracked | 4 tracked |
| Shared benchmarks | 9 shared | MMLU PRO leader |
Decision tradeoffs
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 holds a shared-benchmark lead on SWE-bench Verified, ahead by 3.4 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 Code execution, Computer use, and Parallel agents in local model data.
- Local decision data tags Claude Sonnet 4.6 for Coding, RAG, and Agents.
- Qwen3.5-397B-A17B holds a shared-benchmark lead on MMLU PRO, ahead by 0.5 points.
- Qwen3.5-397B-A17B has the lower cheapest tracked output price at $2.34/1M tokens.
- Local decision data tags Qwen3.5-397B-A17B for Coding, RAG, and Agents.
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
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B
$897
Cheapest tracked route/tier: OpenRouter
Estimated monthly gap: $5,253. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.
Switch friction
- Provider overlap exists on OpenRouter; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is $12.66/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
- Check replacement coverage for Code execution, Computer use, and Parallel agents before moving production traffic.
- Provider overlap exists on OpenRouter; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 is $12.66/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 adds Code execution, Computer use, and Parallel agents in local capability data.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2026-02-17 | 2026-02-16 |
| Context window | 1m | 262k |
| Parameters | — | 397B |
| Architecture | Decoder Only | Mixture of Experts |
| License | Proprietary | Apache 2.0OSI-approved |
| Openness | Proprietary | Open source |
| Weights | Not released | Available |
| Code | Unknown | Unknown |
| Commercial use | Commercial use: conditional | Commercial use: permitted |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2025-08 | - |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Qwen3.5-397B-A17B |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $3/1M tokens | $0.39/1M tokens |
| Output price | $15/1M tokens | $2.34/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Qwen3.5-397B-A17B |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | Yes | Yes |
| Multimodal | Yes | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes |
| JSON / Tool use | Yes | Yes |
| 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 | Qwen3.5-397B-A17B |
|---|---|---|
| MMLU PRO | 87.3 | 87.8 |
| SWE-bench Verified | 79.6 | 76.2 |
| Google-Proof Q&A | 89.9 | 89.3 |
| LiveCodeBench | 80.0 | 83.6 |
| Massive Multi-discipline Multimodal Understanding | 83.6 | 85.0 |
| Humanity's Last Exam | 33.2 | 28.7 |
| MultiChallenge | 57.1 | 67.6 |
| Terminal-Bench 2.0 | 59.1 | 52.5 |
| τ-bench | 87.5 | 86.7 |
Continue comparing
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Phi-4 Mini Flash Reasoning
- Claude Opus 4.6 vs Qwen3.5-397B-A17B
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs DeepSeek V4 Flash
- 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
Popular comparisons for Qwen3.5-397B-A17B
Last reviewed: 2026-07-26. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.