Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Qwen3.6 27B
Wins 6 of 8 areas
Coding · Agents · Reasoning · Facts · Math · Long documents
Wins 1 of 8 areas
Images and charts
Claude Sonnet 4.6 is the stronger all-rounder.Qwen3.6 27B is cheaper and better at images and charts.
Scores updated · 31 tests both models report · How we compare
Where each one wins
Tests won in each of the eight areas we test. 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 software70Claude Sonnet 4.67 of 7 tests
- ReasoningHard problems that need careful thinking40Claude Sonnet 4.64 of 4 tests
- AgentsCarrying out multi-step tasks on its own30Claude Sonnet 4.63 of 3 tests
- FactsGetting facts right instead of making them up10Claude Sonnet 4.61 of 2 tests · 1 tie
- MathCompetition and research-level math10Claude Sonnet 4.61 of 1 test
- Long documentsFinding answers in very long texts10Claude Sonnet 4.61 of 1 test
- Images and chartsUnderstanding pictures, charts and video02Qwen3.6 27B2 of 2 tests
- Following instructionsDoing exactly what it is asked11Even1 each
Math and long documents 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.
Qwen3.6 27B costs 77% less for the same work.
The biggest differences
The three tests each model wins by the widest margin. Scores are out of 100.
Where Claude Sonnet 4.6 pulls ahead
- Answers hard knowledge questions correctlyAA-Omniscience · Accuracy+21.3points ahead
- Hard command-line tasks in a real terminalTerminal-Bench Hard+18.2points ahead
- Customer-service tasks in a simulated bankτ-Bench V3 · Banking+17.7points ahead
Where Qwen3.6 27B pulls ahead
- Follows unfamiliar, precisely checkable instructionsIFBench+11points ahead
- Reasoning about charts from research papersCharXiv (RQ)+6.8points ahead
- Harder college exam questions with imagesMMMU-Pro+1.3points ahead
Every test, side by side
All 31 tests both models report. The winning score is in its model's colour; marks a score checked independently.
CodingClaude Sonnet 4.6
- Terminal-Bench HardClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 18.25334.8+18.2
- Terminal-Bench 2.1Claude Sonnet 4.6 by 10.571.260.7+10.5
- LiveBench · CodingClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 7.579.371.8+7.5
- SciCodeClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 7.350.142.8+7.3
- SWE-bench ProClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 4.658.153.5+4.6
- LiveBench · Agentic CodingClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 3.342.639.3+3.3
- SWE-bench VerifiedClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 2.479.677.2+2.4
AgentsClaude Sonnet 4.6
- τ-Bench V3 · BankingClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 17.734.416.7+17.7
- GDPValClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 12.336.724.4+12.3
- Terminal-Bench 4.0Claude Sonnet 4.6 by 330+3
ReasoningClaude Sonnet 4.6
- LiveBench · ReasoningClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 14.584.870.3+14.5
- Humanity's Last ExamClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 10.533.623.1+10.5
- GPQA DiamondClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 3.387.584.2+3.3
- CritPtClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 23.11.1+2
FactsClaude Sonnet 4.6
- AA-Omniscience · AccuracyClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 21.340.919.6+21.3
- AA-Omniscience · Non-hallucinationtie51.650.7tie
Images and chartsQwen3.6 27B
- CharXiv (RQ)Qwen3.6 27B by 6.871.678.4+6.8
- MMMU-ProQwen3.6 27B by 1.373.374.6+1.3
Following instructionsEven
- IFBenchQwen3.6 27B by 1156.667.6+11
- LiveBench · Instruction FollowingClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 1063.253.2+10
Other results9 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.
- AA-OmniscienceClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 32.212.2-20+32.2
- τ²-Bench Telecom (AA run)Qwen3.6 27B by 18.575.794.2+18.5
- DeepSWE 1.1Claude Sonnet 4.6 by 16.73013.3+16.7
- AA Agentic IndexClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 1333.120.1+13
- livebench_languageClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 12.876.163.3+12.8
- Artificial Analysis Coding IndexClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 9.36353.7+9.3
- AA IntelligenceClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 8.730.121.4+8.7
- livebench_data_analysisClaude Sonnet 4.6 by 7.67870.4+7.6
- Terminal-Bench 2.0tie59.159.3tie
Questions people ask
Which is better, Claude Sonnet 4.6 or Qwen3.6 27B?
Claude Sonnet 4.6 wins six of the eight areas we test: coding, agents, reasoning, facts, math and long documents. Qwen3.6 27B wins images and charts, and costs 77% less. They are level on following instructions.
Which is better for coding?
Claude Sonnet 4.6. It wins 7 of the 7 coding tests both models report; Qwen3.6 27B wins none.
Which is cheaper?
Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs $3.00 per million input tokens and $15.00 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 27B costs $0.60 and $3.60. That makes Qwen3.6 27B about 77% cheaper for the same work.
How do you compare the two?
We use the 31 benchmark tests both models have published scores on. The verdict counts the 22 tests in the eight capability areas, and a gap under one point (ten on rating-style scales) counts as a tie. The other 9 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.