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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3 235B-A22B vs Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2

Qwen3 235B-A22B comes out ahead, 51 to 44 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 235B-A22B

    Released Apr 28, 2025

    51/100
    • ECI139.4
    • Price$0.70 / $2.80
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 235B-A22B

  2. Anthropic

    Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2

    Released Oct 22, 2024

    44/100
    • ECI133.5
    • Price$3.00 / $15.00
    • Context200K
    Full specs Remove Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Qwen3 235B-A22B is our pick

Qwen3 235B-A22B is the better all-round choice, scoring 51/100 against Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 (44). It leads on capability and price. Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 wins on inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3 235B-A22BCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 235B-A22B 139.4 · Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 133.5
  • Lowest priceQwen3 235B-A22BQwen3 235B-A22B $1.23 · Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 $6.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextClaude Sonnet 3.5 v2Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 200,000 · Qwen3 235B-A22B 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsClaude Sonnet 3.5 v2Qwen3 235B-A22B: Text · Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2: Text, Images, PDFs
  • Self-hostingQwen3 235B-A22BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3 235B-A22BClaude Sonnet 3.5 v2
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%6557
Price25%4613
Inputs & features15%3560
Context window10%2432
Overall100%51/10044/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Qwen3 235B-A22B vs Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3 235B-A22BAlibaba (Qwen)Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2Anthropic
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)139.4 (best)133.5
ECI rank#103 of 148 (best)#119 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions70.7% (best)55.3%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—8.5%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.70 (best)$3.00
Output$2.80 (best)$15.00
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$1.23 (best)$6.00
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIMedian of 1 providers
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens200,000 tokens (best)
Max output16,384 tokens (best)8,192 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoYes
PDFsNoYes
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningYesNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietary
API model IDqwen3-235b-a22b—
API providers7 (best)1
ReleasedApr 28, 2025Oct 22, 2024
Knowledge cutoffApr 2025Apr 30, 2024
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • Qwen3 235B-A22B$12.60
  • Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2$60.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3 235B-A22B or Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2?

Qwen3 235B-A22B is the better all-round choice, scoring 51/100 against Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 (44). It leads on capability and price. Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 wins on inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3 235B-A22B or Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2?

Qwen3 235B-A22B is cheaper at $0.70 input / $2.80 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 costs $3.00 input / $15.00 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $1.23 per million tokens for Qwen3 235B-A22B versus $6.00 for Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 (4.9× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3 235B-A22B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 235B-A22B 139.4 (#103 of 148) and Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 133.5 (#119 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (135.2–140.8 vs 129.2–137.5), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3 235B-A22B 70.7%, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 55.3%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 235B-A22B and Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3 235B-A22B leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 has the largest context window at 200,000 tokens, against 131,072 for Qwen3 235B-A22B. Maximum output per response: Qwen3 235B-A22B up to 16,384, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 up to 8,192 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3 235B-A22B accepts text; Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 accepts text, images and PDFs. Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3 235B-A22B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3 235B-A22B is the newest, released Apr 28, 2025. Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 came out Oct 22, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3 235B-A22B Apr 2025, Claude Sonnet 3.5 v2 Apr 30, 2024.

How do you decide the winner?

Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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