Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
Wins 4 of 5 areas
Coding · Reasoning · Long documents · Following instructions
Wins 0 of 5 areas
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Claude Sonnet 4.5 is the stronger all-rounder.Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct is cheaper.
Scores updated · 23 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 software60Claude Sonnet 4.56 of 6 tests
- ReasoningHard problems that need careful thinking30Claude Sonnet 4.53 of 3 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 up11Even1 each
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.
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct costs 50% less for the same work.
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
- Reasons across sets of long documentsAA-LCR+26.6points ahead
- Graduate-level biology, physics and chemistry questionsGPQA Diamond+21.6points ahead
- Answers hard knowledge questions correctlyAA-Omniscience · Accuracy+17.2points ahead
Where Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct pulls ahead
- Avoids making up answers it doesn't knowAA-Omniscience · Non-hallucination+4.2points ahead
Every test, side by side
All 23 tests both models report. The winning score is in its model's colour; marks a score checked independently.
CodingClaude Sonnet 4.5
- Terminal-Bench HardClaude Sonnet 4.5 by 16.735.618.9+16.7
- SWE-bench MultilingualClaude Sonnet 4.5 by 12.36754.7+12.3
- LMArena · WebDevClaude Sonnet 4.5 by 121 rating points13941273+121 rating
- SciCodeClaude Sonnet 4.5 by 9.845.735.9+9.8
- SWE-bench VerifiedClaude Sonnet 4.5 by 7.677.269.6+7.6
- SWE-bench ProClaude Sonnet 4.5 by 4.943.638.7+4.9
ReasoningClaude Sonnet 4.5
- GPQA DiamondClaude Sonnet 4.5 by 21.683.461.8+21.6
- Humanity's Last ExamClaude Sonnet 4.5 by 13.317.84.5+13.3
- CritPtClaude Sonnet 4.5 by 1.11.10+1.1
FactsEven
- AA-Omniscience · AccuracyClaude Sonnet 4.5 by 17.232.915.7+17.2
- AA-Omniscience · Non-hallucinationQwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct by 4.250.955.1+4.2
Long documentsClaude Sonnet 4.5
- AA-LCRClaude Sonnet 4.5 by 26.672.345.7+26.6
Following instructionsClaude Sonnet 4.5
- IFBenchClaude Sonnet 4.5 by 16.857.340.5+16.8
Other results10 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 34.578.143.6+34.5
- Artificial Analysis Coding IndexClaude Sonnet 4.5 by 27.552.124.6+27.5
- AA-OmniscienceClaude Sonnet 4.5 by 22.1-0.1-22.2+22.1
- Multi-SWE-BenchClaude Sonnet 4.5 by 18.544.325.8+18.5
- swe_bench_bashClaude Sonnet 4.5 by 1671.455.4+16
- Terminal-Bench 2.0Claude Sonnet 4.5 by 12.55037.5+12.5
- TAU-bench (airline)Claude Sonnet 4.5 by 107060+10
- AA IntelligenceClaude Sonnet 4.5 by 8.820.711.9+8.8
- TAU-bench (retail)Claude Sonnet 4.5 by 8.786.277.5+8.7
- AA Agentic Indextie17.518.3tie
Questions people ask
Which is better, Claude Sonnet 4.5 or Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct?
Claude Sonnet 4.5 wins four of the five areas where both have results: coding, reasoning, long documents and following instructions. Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct wins none, but costs 50% less. They are level on facts.
Which is better for coding?
Claude Sonnet 4.5. It wins 6 of the 6 coding tests both models report; Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct wins none.
Which is cheaper?
Claude Sonnet 4.5 costs $3.00 per million input tokens and $15.00 per million output tokens; Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct costs $1.50 and $7.50. That makes Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct about 50% cheaper for the same work.
How do you compare the two?
We use the 23 benchmark tests both models have published scores on. The verdict counts the 13 tests in the eight capability areas, and a gap under one point (ten on rating-style scales) counts as a tie. The other 10 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.