Compare / Qwen3.5-Flash vs Claude Sonnet 5

Qwen3.5-Flash vs Claude Sonnet 5

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 9 results on 3 sources that measured both models.

AlibabaQwen3.5-Flash $0.065 in · $0.26 out
AnthropicClaude Sonnet 5 Released 30 Jun 2026 · $2.00 in · $10.00 out
Qwen3.5-Flash wins 0Claude Sonnet 5 wins 9

Of the 9 results both models have, the better value on each. Results whose reported ranges overlap are too close to call.

Results as of 9 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-09-dd620e778ac5). See also Alibaba vs Anthropic, every model from both labs.

Qwen3.5-Flash or Claude Sonnet 5? The short answer

They score about the same, so pick Qwen3.5-Flash: it costs 35 times less per token.

  • Qwen3.5-Flash is cheaper: $0.11 against $4.00 per million tokens, 35 times less.
  • On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Claude Sonnet 5 does better for agents and tool use, writing and sticking to the facts.

Head to head

$0.11
Price per million tokens, blendedlower is better
$4.00
1,000,000
Context window, tokens
1,000,000

Every fact side by side

Qwen3.5-FlashClaude Sonnet 5
Price per million tokens$0.065 in · $0.26 out$2.00 in · $10.00 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.11$4.00
Cheapest host, blended–$4.00 (Amazon Bedrock)
Cached input, per million–$0.20 cached input
Intelligence Index–38.2
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second––
Context window1,000,000 tokens1,000,000 tokens
Released–30 Jun 2026
WeightsClosedClosed
Developer based inChinathe US

Prices are the developer's list price where we have read it, otherwise the typical host on OpenRouter; see every model's price. Intelligence and speed from Artificial Analysis.

Which is better for what

Each model's rank among the models on sale today, for each kind of work, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. Further right is better; the better rank is in green.

Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 143 of 164 35 of 164
Professional workReal tasks from banking, consulting and law, business documents and freelance projects not measured 19 of 51
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge not measured 33 of 198
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 115 of 188 37 of 188
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 119 of 152 85 of 152

From our research

Every shared result

Each model's best result on every measure both have, grouped by benchmark, with the setting that produced it. Under each measure, every model that benchmark has measured is a grey tick, best to the right, so you can see where the two sit in the field. The headline measures of each benchmark come first; the rest are under "Show all". Green marks the better value; where a source reports ranges that overlap, neither is marked.

MeasureQwen3.5-FlashClaude Sonnet 5
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results
Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 142 · 49 of 387 measured 1,396 1,462high reasoning
Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better 123 · 55 of 163 measured 1,414 1,452high reasoning
Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 137 · 44 of 380 measured 1,403 1,465high reasoning
SimpleQA Verified (Epoch AI) reported by SimpleQA Verified (Epoch AI) · 1 result
Correct answers% of questions, higher is better 64 · 53 of 76 measured 20.3% 33.7%max reasoning
Vending-Bench 2 reported by Vending-Bench 2 · 1 result
Money after a yearUS dollars, higher is better 48 · 14 of 58 measured $462.69 $6,378
Show all 9 results (4 more)
MeasureQwen3.5-FlashClaude Sonnet 5
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 4 results
Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 167 · 54 of 385 measured 1,337 1,435high reasoning
Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 135 · 22 of 338 measured 1,419 1,512high reasoning
Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 148 · 33 of 387 measured 1,381 1,467high reasoning
Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 149 · 43 of 386 measured 1,367 1,451high reasoning

Quick answers

Is Qwen3.5-Flash better than Claude Sonnet 5?

They score about the same, so pick Qwen3.5-Flash: it costs 35 times less per token.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.5-Flash or Claude Sonnet 5?

Qwen3.5-Flash is cheaper: $0.11 against $4.00 per million tokens, 35 times less.

Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3.5-Flash or Claude Sonnet 5?

Claude Sonnet 5 ranks 35 of 164 models on sale for multi-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls, against 143 for Qwen3.5-Flash.

Which is better for writing, Qwen3.5-Flash or Claude Sonnet 5?

Claude Sonnet 5 ranks 37 of 188 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 115 for Qwen3.5-Flash.

Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3.5-Flash or Claude Sonnet 5?

Claude Sonnet 5 ranks 85 of 152 models on sale for summarising without inventing things, and factual answers, against 119 for Qwen3.5-Flash.

Run Qwen3.5-Flash and Claude Sonnet 5 on your own prompt

Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.

Try the playgroundTalk to us