Claude Sonnet 4 vs Qwen3 4B
Wins 4 of 5 areas
Coding · Reasoning · Long documents · Following instructions
Wins 1 of 5 areas
Facts
Claude Sonnet 4 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 42 of 2 tests
- ReasoningHard problems that need careful thinking20Claude Sonnet 42 of 2 tests
- Long documentsFinding answers in very long texts10Claude Sonnet 41 of 1 test
- Following instructionsDoing exactly what it is asked10Claude Sonnet 41 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 pulls ahead
- Code for real scientific research problemsSciCode+36.5points ahead
- Graduate-level biology, physics and chemistry questionsGPQA Diamond+25.5points ahead
- Follows unfamiliar, precisely checkable instructionsIFBench+22.2points 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
- SciCodeClaude Sonnet 4 by 36.5403.5+36.5
- LiveCodeBench v6Claude Sonnet 4 by 12.448.536.1+12.4
ReasoningClaude Sonnet 4
- GPQA DiamondClaude Sonnet 4 by 25.577.752.2+25.5
- Humanity's Last ExamClaude Sonnet 4 by 6.310.74.4+6.3
FactsQwen3 4B
- Vectara HHEM hallucination ratelower is betterQwen3 4B by 4.610.35.7+4.6
Following instructionsClaude Sonnet 4
- IFBenchClaude Sonnet 4 by 22.254.732.5+22.2
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 by 45.664.619+45.6
- MMLU-ProClaude Sonnet 4 by 13.783.770+13.7
- AA IntelligenceClaude Sonnet 4 by 11.718.97.2+11.7
- vectara_factual_consistencyQwen3 4B by 4.689.794.3+4.6
- vectara_avg_summary_lengthClaude Sonnet 4 by 41.1 rating points145.8104.7+41.1 rating
- vectara_answer_rateQwen3 4B by 1.398.699.9+1.3
Questions people ask
Which is better, Claude Sonnet 4 or Qwen3 4B?
Claude Sonnet 4 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. 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.