Model comparison
Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Qwen3.6 Plus
Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 61.9 to 47.5 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.6 Plus costs 3.6× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Claude Sonnet 5.5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 23 shared benchmarks.
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 23 benchmarks with published results for both. Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher in 8 categories and Qwen3.6 Plus in 0 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads 87.9 to 51.8.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is Mystery Game Puzzles: 65% for Claude Sonnet 5.5 and 12% for Qwen3.6 Plus.
- Qwen3.6 Plus is cheaper at $0.50 / $3 per million input/output tokens, against $2 / $10 for Claude Sonnet 5.5.
Side by side
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Qwen3.6 Plus | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 61.9 | 47.5 |
| Released | 2026-09-28 | 2026-03-31 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Context window | 1M | 1M |
| Max output | 128K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $2 | $0.50 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $10 | $3 |
| Results tracked | 32 | 37 |
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Category by category
Coding Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 67.3 (#6), Qwen3.6 Plus: 40.8 (#130)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1774 | 1461 |
| SciCode | 61% | 40.7% |
| LMArena Coding | 1513 | 1467 |
| ALE-Bench | 1,819 | 670.15 |
| SWE-bench Verified | — | 57.9% |
| FrontierCode | 52.1% | — |
| CursorBench | 55.5% | — |
| FrontierSWE | 61.9% | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 45.0 (#16), Qwen3.6 Plus: —
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 75.5% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 5,115 |
Reasoning Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 54.0 (#28), Qwen3.6 Plus: 29.3 (#93)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| NYT Connections (extended) | 80.5% | 60.3% |
| CritPt | 31.4% | 2.9% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1495 | 1449 |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 65% | 12% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 165.03 | 147.65 |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 17% |
| Thematic Generalization | — | 59.5% |
| DTBench | — | 81.9% |
| LMCA | — | 33.1% |
Math Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 87.9 (#6), Qwen3.6 Plus: 51.8 (#54)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 88.8% | 38.2% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 100% | 93.3% |
| LMArena Math | 1510 | 1450 |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 80.5% | — |
| ProofBench | 100% | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | — | 26.2% |
| FrontierMath Erdős | 2.9% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | — | 8.3% |
Knowledge Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 66.0 (#12), Qwen3.6 Plus: 56.1 (#45)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 95.6% | 88.4% |
| SimpleQA Verified | 46.5% | 44.1% |
| LMArena Expert | 1540 | 1454 |
Multimodal Not comparable
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 51.5 (#6), Qwen3.6 Plus: —
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1289 | — |
| Furniture Assembly | 75% | — |
Multilingual Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 55.3 (#30), Qwen3.6 Plus: 53.3 (#70)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1452 | 1424 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1522 | 1477 |
| LMArena Russian | 1451 | 1434 |
| LMArena French | — | 1455 |
| LMArena German | — | 1452 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1389 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1379 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1432 |
Instruction Following Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 78.3 (#11), Qwen3.6 Plus: 75.0 (#74)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1495 | 1425 |
Long Context Too close to call
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 45.9 (#28), Qwen3.6 Plus: 45.2 (#49)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1498 | 1439 |
| CL-bench | — | 20.3% |
Writing & Preference Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads
Claude Sonnet 5.5: 66.0 (#40), Qwen3.6 Plus: 62.2 (#82)
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Qwen3.6 Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1471 | 1437 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1465 | 1404 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1474 | 1438 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 better than Qwen3.6 Plus?
Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 61.9 to 47.5 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.6 Plus costs 3.6× 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 Plus?
Qwen3.6 Plus is cheaper. It lists at $0.50 per million input tokens and $3 per million output tokens; Claude Sonnet 5.5 lists at $2 and $10.
Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Qwen3.6 Plus better for coding?
Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 67.3 versus 40.8 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Both accept 1M tokens.
How many benchmarks do Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Qwen3.6 Plus share?
23 benchmarks have published results for both models. Claude Sonnet 5.5 has 32 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.6 Plus has 37.