Claude Sonnet 5 vs Qwen3.6 Plus
Wins 7 of 8 areas
Coding · Agents · Reasoning · Images and charts · Math · Long documents · Following instructions
Wins 1 of 8 areas
Facts
Claude Sonnet 5 is the stronger all-rounder.Qwen3.6 Plus is cheaper and better at facts.
Scores updated · 33 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 software80Claude Sonnet 58 of 8 tests
- ReasoningHard problems that need careful thinking40Claude Sonnet 54 of 4 tests
- AgentsCarrying out multi-step tasks on its own30Claude Sonnet 53 of 3 tests
- MathCompetition and research-level math20Claude Sonnet 52 of 2 tests
- Images and chartsUnderstanding pictures, charts and video10Claude Sonnet 51 of 2 tests · 1 tie
- Long documentsFinding answers in very long texts10Claude Sonnet 51 of 1 test
- Following instructionsDoing exactly what it is asked10Claude Sonnet 51 of 1 test
- FactsGetting facts right instead of making them up12Qwen3.6 Plus2 of 3 tests
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.
Qwen3.6 Plus costs 71% 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 5 pulls ahead
- Unpublished advanced math problemsFrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2)+27.3points ahead
- Real work tasks from 44 professionsGDPVal+23.6points ahead
- Command-line tasks in a real terminalTerminal-Bench 2.1+19.1points ahead
Where Qwen3.6 Plus pulls ahead
- Short factual questions, answered correctlySimpleQA Verified+10.4points ahead
- Avoids making up answers it doesn't knowAA-Omniscience · Non-hallucination+4.8points ahead
Every test, side by side
All 33 tests both models report. The winning score is in its model's colour; marks a score checked independently.
CodingClaude Sonnet 5
- Terminal-Bench 2.1Claude Sonnet 5 by 19.180.561.4+19.1
- LiveBench · Agentic CodingClaude Sonnet 5 by 1859.441.4+18
- SciCodeClaude Sonnet 5 by 13.654.340.7+13.6
- LMArena · WebDevClaude Sonnet 5 by 80 rating points15411461+80 rating
- SWE-bench ProClaude Sonnet 5 by 6.663.256.6+6.6
- SWE-bench VerifiedClaude Sonnet 5 by 6.485.278.8+6.4
- SWE-bench MultilingualClaude Sonnet 5 by 4.578.373.8+4.5
- LiveBench · CodingClaude Sonnet 5 by 2.580.778.2+2.5
AgentsClaude Sonnet 5
- GDPValClaude Sonnet 5 by 23.648.324.7+23.6
- OSWorld-VerifiedClaude Sonnet 5 by 18.781.262.5+18.7
- τ-Bench V3 · BankingClaude Sonnet 5 by 16.537.320.8+16.5
ReasoningClaude Sonnet 5
- CritPtClaude Sonnet 5 by 1416.92.9+14
- Humanity's Last ExamClaude Sonnet 5 by 13.541.327.8+13.5
- LiveBench · ReasoningClaude Sonnet 5 by 12.988.775.8+12.9
- GPQA DiamondClaude Sonnet 5 by 2.991.188.2+2.9
FactsQwen3.6 Plus
- AA-Omniscience · AccuracyClaude Sonnet 5 by 13.74026.4+13.7
- SimpleQA VerifiedQwen3.6 Plus by 10.433.744.1+10.4
- AA-Omniscience · Non-hallucinationQwen3.6 Plus by 4.860.665.4+4.8
Images and chartsClaude Sonnet 5
- CharXiv (RQ)Claude Sonnet 5 by 6.888.381.5+6.8
- MMMU-Protie77.378tie
MathClaude Sonnet 5
- FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2)Claude Sonnet 5 by 27.365.638.3+27.3
- LiveBench · MathematicsClaude Sonnet 5 by 9.292.983.7+9.2
Following instructionsClaude Sonnet 5
- LiveBench · Instruction FollowingClaude Sonnet 5 by 5.663.958.3+5.6
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.
- Terminal-Bench 2.0Claude Sonnet 5 by 18.880.461.6+18.8
- Artificial Analysis Coding IndexClaude Sonnet 5 by 1771.554.5+17
- AA-OmniscienceClaude Sonnet 5 by 15.616.40.9+15.6
- AA Agentic IndexClaude Sonnet 5 by 15.344.329+15.3
- ToolathlonClaude Sonnet 5 by 14.554.339.8+14.5
- AA IntelligenceClaude Sonnet 5 by 11.238.227+11.2
- HLE (with tools)Claude Sonnet 5 by 6.857.450.6+6.8
- livebench_data_analysisClaude Sonnet 5 by 1.871.769.9+1.8
- livebench_languagetie7575tie
Questions people ask
Which is better, Claude Sonnet 5 or Qwen3.6 Plus?
Claude Sonnet 5 wins seven of the eight areas we test: coding, agents, reasoning, images and charts, math, long documents and following instructions. Qwen3.6 Plus wins facts, and costs 71% less.
Which is better for coding?
Claude Sonnet 5. It wins 8 of the 8 coding tests both models report; Qwen3.6 Plus wins none.
Which is cheaper?
Claude Sonnet 5 costs $2.00 per million input tokens and $10.00 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 Plus costs $0.50 and $3.00. That makes Qwen3.6 Plus about 71% cheaper for the same work.
How do you compare the two?
We use the 33 benchmark tests both models have published scores on. The verdict counts the 24 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.