Model comparison

Claude Sonnet 5 vs Qwen3.5-Flash

Claude Sonnet 5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.5 to 42.3 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.5-Flash costs 23× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Claude Sonnet 5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 29 shared benchmarks.

Claude Sonnet 5 Anthropic

54.5

Rank #26 Confirmed

Qwen3.5-Flash Alibaba (Qwen)

42.3

Rank #105 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 29 benchmarks with published results for both. Claude Sonnet 5 scores higher in 8 categories and Qwen3.5-Flash in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where Claude Sonnet 5 leads 66.1 to 36.3.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3): 65.6% for Claude Sonnet 5 and 18.2% for Qwen3.5-Flash.
  • Qwen3.5-Flash is cheaper at $0.10 / $0.40 per million input/output tokens, against $2 / $10 for Claude Sonnet 5.

Side by side

Claude Sonnet 5 and Qwen3.5-Flash specifications
Claude Sonnet 5Qwen3.5-Flash
ProviderAnthropicAlibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index54.542.3
Released2026-06-292026-02-23
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
Context window1M1M
Max output128K66K
Input $ / M tokens$2$0.10
Output $ / M tokens$10$0.40
Results tracked5132

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Category by category

Coding Claude Sonnet 5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5: 55.5 (#20), Qwen3.5-Flash: 33.9 (#234)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Qwen3.5-Flash
LMArena WebDev15401243
LMArena Coding14831412
ALE-Bench1,463221.8
DeepSWE53.8%—
FrontierCode42.7%—
CursorBench34.1%—
SciCode53.6%—
GSO37.3%—
WeirdML68.8%—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Claude Sonnet 5: 42.7 (#16), Qwen3.5-Flash: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Qwen3.5-Flash
Vending-Bench 26,378462.69
APEX-Agents54.5%—
GBAEval65.3%—
LMArena Search1194—

Reasoning Claude Sonnet 5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5: 48.2 (#37), Qwen3.5-Flash: 32.9 (#63)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Qwen3.5-Flash
Chess Puzzles35%21%
LMArena Hard Prompts14611404
Mystery Game Puzzles35%20%
DTBench92.5%82.9%
LMCA50%29.1%
Epoch Capabilities Index156.34143.98
SimpleBench60.6%—
NYT Connections (extended)75.1%—
CritPt16.9%—
Surface Evolver Bench60%—
Bench to the Future 30.14—
ForecastBench61.1—

Math Claude Sonnet 5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5: 66.1 (#21), Qwen3.5-Flash: 36.3 (#117)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Qwen3.5-Flash
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)65.6%18.2%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202594.7%84.4%
LMArena Math14671407
FrontierMath Tier 429.3%—
ProofBench77%—
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)—6.2%
FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1)—0%

Knowledge Claude Sonnet 5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5: 55.7 (#42), Qwen3.5-Flash: 43.2 (#84)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Qwen3.5-Flash
GPQA Diamond90.5%82.3%
SimpleQA Verified33.7%20.3%
LMArena Expert14911408
Vectara Hallucination Rate—10.5%

Multimodal Not comparable

Claude Sonnet 5: 42.4 (#26), Qwen3.5-Flash: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Qwen3.5-Flash
LMArena Vision1275—
Blueprint-Bench 224.9%—
LMArena Document1466—

Multilingual Claude Sonnet 5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5: 54.0 (#55), Qwen3.5-Flash: 50.7 (#116)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Qwen3.5-Flash
LMArena Non-English14311385
LMArena Chinese14751446
LMArena French14571412
LMArena German14481389
LMArena Japanese14221369
LMArena Korean14111344
LMArena Russian14521379
LMArena Spanish14361399

Instruction Following Claude Sonnet 5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5: 76.6 (#39), Qwen3.5-Flash: 72.8 (#133)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Qwen3.5-Flash
LMArena Instruction Following14531374

Long Context Claude Sonnet 5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5: 44.8 (#53), Qwen3.5-Flash: 42.4 (#119)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Qwen3.5-Flash
LMArena Longer Query14641392

Writing & Preference Claude Sonnet 5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5: 69.4 (#24), Qwen3.5-Flash: 58.2 (#117)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Qwen3.5-Flash
LMArena Text14431397
LMArena Creative Writing14161343
LMArena Multi-Turn14541393
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1794—
EQ-Bench 41236—

Frequently asked questions

Is Claude Sonnet 5 better than Qwen3.5-Flash?

Claude Sonnet 5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.5 to 42.3 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.5-Flash costs 23× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Claude Sonnet 5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5 or Qwen3.5-Flash?

Qwen3.5-Flash is cheaper. It lists at $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.40 per million output tokens; Claude Sonnet 5 lists at $2 and $10.

Is Claude Sonnet 5 or Qwen3.5-Flash better for coding?

Claude Sonnet 5 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 55.5 versus 33.9 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Both accept 1M tokens.

How many benchmarks do Claude Sonnet 5 and Qwen3.5-Flash share?

29 benchmarks have published results for both models. Claude Sonnet 5 has 51 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.5-Flash has 32.

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