Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Qwen3 4B
Wins 4 of 5 areas
Coding · Reasoning · Long documents · Following instructions
Wins 1 of 5 areas
Facts
Claude Sonnet 4.5 is the stronger all-rounder.Qwen3 4B is better at facts.
Scores updated · 13 tests both models report · How we compare
Where each one wins
Tests won in each of the five areas where both have results. Each piece is one test, so a longer bar means more evidence; grey means the two scored within a point of each other.
- CodingWriting and fixing software20Claude Sonnet 4.52 of 2 tests
- ReasoningHard problems that need careful thinking20Claude Sonnet 4.52 of 2 tests
- Long documentsFinding answers in very long texts10Claude Sonnet 4.51 of 1 test
- Following instructionsDoing exactly what it is asked10Claude Sonnet 4.51 of 1 test
- FactsGetting facts right instead of making them up01Qwen3 4B1 of 1 test
Facts, long documents and following instructions rest on a single test each.
What it costs
Prices per million tokens, roughly 750,000 words. The bars show the cost of a million tokens read plus a million written.
The biggest differences
The tests each model wins by the widest margin, up to three each. Scores are out of 100.
Where Claude Sonnet 4.5 pulls ahead
- Code for real scientific research problemsSciCode+42.2points ahead
- Graduate-level biology, physics and chemistry questionsGPQA Diamond+31.2points ahead
- Recent programming contest problemsLiveCodeBench v6+27.9points ahead
Where Qwen3 4B pulls ahead
No clear win on a test scored out of 100.
Every test, side by side
All 13 tests both models report. The winning score is in its model's colour; marks a score checked independently.
CodingClaude Sonnet 4.5
- SciCodeClaude Sonnet 4.5 by 42.245.73.5+42.2
- LiveCodeBench v6Claude Sonnet 4.5 by 27.96436.1+27.9
ReasoningClaude Sonnet 4.5
- GPQA DiamondClaude Sonnet 4.5 by 31.283.452.2+31.2
- Humanity's Last ExamClaude Sonnet 4.5 by 13.417.84.4+13.4
FactsQwen3 4B
- Vectara HHEM hallucination ratelower is betterQwen3 4B by 6.3125.7+6.3
Following instructionsClaude Sonnet 4.5
- IFBenchClaude Sonnet 4.5 by 24.857.332.5+24.8
Other results6 tests, not counted
Tests outside the eight areas. They are not counted above: several are summary scores built from other tests, or the same test under another name.
- τ²-Bench Telecom (AA run)Claude Sonnet 4.5 by 59.178.119+59.1
- MMLU-ProClaude Sonnet 4.5 by 17.587.570+17.5
- AA IntelligenceClaude Sonnet 4.5 by 13.520.77.2+13.5
- vectara_factual_consistencyQwen3 4B by 6.38894.3+6.3
- vectara_answer_rateQwen3 4B by 4.395.699.9+4.3
- vectara_avg_summary_lengthClaude Sonnet 4.5 by 23.1 rating points127.8104.7+23.1 rating
Questions people ask
Which is better, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Qwen3 4B?
Claude Sonnet 4.5 wins four of the five areas where both have results: coding, reasoning, long documents and following instructions. Qwen3 4B wins facts.
Which is better for coding?
Claude Sonnet 4.5. It wins 2 of the 2 coding tests both models report; Qwen3 4B wins none.
How do you compare the two?
We use the 13 benchmark tests both models have published scores on. The verdict counts the 7 tests in the eight capability areas, and a gap under one point (ten on rating-style scales) counts as a tie. The other 6 are listed but not counted, because several are summary scores or repeat a test. Each score is the one shown on the model's own page.