Noometry

Model comparison

Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Qwen3.6 35B-A3B

Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 61.9 to 37.6 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.6 35B-A3B costs 7.2× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Claude Sonnet 5.5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 8 shared benchmarks.

Claude Sonnet 5.5 Anthropic

61.9

Rank #10 Confirmed

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B Alibaba (Qwen)

37.6

Rank #201 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 8 benchmarks with published results for both. Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher in 5 categories and Qwen3.6 35B-A3B in 0 categories; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads 87.9 to 38.9.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3): 88.8% for Claude Sonnet 5.5 and 20.4% for Qwen3.6 35B-A3B.
  • Qwen3.6 35B-A3B is cheaper at $0.25 / $1.49 per million input/output tokens, against $2 / $10 for Claude Sonnet 5.5.
  • Claude Sonnet 5.5 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 262K.
  • Qwen3.6 35B-A3B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Claude Sonnet 5.5Qwen3.6 35B-A3B
ProviderAnthropicAlibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index61.937.6
Released2026-09-282026-04-01
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1M262K
Max output128K66K
Input $ / M tokens$2$0.25
Output $ / M tokens$10$1.49
Results tracked3214

Sponsored placements are available on pages like this one. Advertise on Noometry

Category by category

Coding Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 67.3 (#6), Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: 37.2 (#196)

BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Qwen3.6 35B-A3B
SciCode61%35.8%
FrontierCode52.1%—
CursorBench55.5%—
LMArena WebDev1774—
FrontierSWE61.9%—
WeirdML—34.5%
LMArena Coding1513—
ALE-Bench1,819—

Agentic & Tool Use Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 45.0 (#16), Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: 22.1 (#134)

BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Qwen3.6 35B-A3B
Terminal-Bench—23%
APEX-Agents75.5%—

Reasoning Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 54.0 (#28), Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: 28.0 (#109)

BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Qwen3.6 35B-A3B
NYT Connections (extended)80.5%41.6%
CritPt31.4%0.3%
Mystery Game Puzzles65%22%
Epoch Capabilities Index165.03143.93
Chess Puzzles—26%
LMArena Hard Prompts1495—
DTBench—73.9%
LMCA—29.7%
Surface Evolver Bench—44.4%

Math Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 87.9 (#6), Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: 38.9 (#121)

BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Qwen3.6 35B-A3B
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)88.8%20.4%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025100%86.7%
FrontierMath Tier 480.5%—
ProofBench100%—
LMArena Math1510—
FrontierMath Erdős2.9%—

Knowledge Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 66.0 (#12), Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: 51.3 (#68)

BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Qwen3.6 35B-A3B
GPQA Diamond95.6%84.8%
SimpleQA Verified46.5%—
LMArena Expert1540—

Multimodal Not comparable

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 51.5 (#6), Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: —

BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Qwen3.6 35B-A3B
LMArena Vision1289—
Furniture Assembly75%—

Multilingual Not comparable

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 55.3 (#30), Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: —

BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Qwen3.6 35B-A3B
LMArena Non-English1452—
LMArena Chinese1522—
LMArena Russian1451—

Instruction Following Not comparable

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 78.3 (#11), Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: —

BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Qwen3.6 35B-A3B
LMArena Instruction Following1495—

Long Context Not comparable

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 45.9 (#28), Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: —

BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Qwen3.6 35B-A3B
LMArena Longer Query1498—

Writing & Preference Not comparable

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 66.0 (#40), Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: —

BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Qwen3.6 35B-A3B
LMArena Text1471—
LMArena Creative Writing1465—
LMArena Multi-Turn1474—

Frequently asked questions

Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 better than Qwen3.6 35B-A3B?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 61.9 to 37.6 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.6 35B-A3B costs 7.2× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Claude Sonnet 5.5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Qwen3.6 35B-A3B?

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B is cheaper. It lists at $0.25 per million input tokens and $1.49 per million output tokens; Claude Sonnet 5.5 lists at $2 and $10.

Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Qwen3.6 35B-A3B better for coding?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 67.3 versus 37.2 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 does, with 1M tokens against 262K.

How many benchmarks do Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Qwen3.6 35B-A3B share?

8 benchmarks have published results for both models. Claude Sonnet 5.5 has 32 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.6 35B-A3B has 14.

Related comparisons

Go deeper