Claude Sonnet 5 vs Qwen3.6 Max Preview
Side-by-side API pricing and Artificial Analysis performance for Claude Sonnet 5 (Anthropic) and Qwen3.6 Max Preview (Alibaba (Qwen)). Green cells mark the better value in each row.
Prices updated Jul 22, 2026, 1:34 AM UTC · refreshed hourly
| Claude Sonnet 5 Anthropic | Qwen3.6 Max Preview Alibaba (Qwen) | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Input $/1M | $2.00 | $1.04 |
| Output $/1M | $10.00 | $6.24 |
| Blended $/1M (3:1) | $4.00 | $2.34 |
| RAG example (30K in / 2K out) | $0.08 | $0.0437 |
| Quality & speed | ||
| Intelligence Index | 53.4 | 40 |
| Coding Index | 71.5 | — |
| Agentic Index | 46.7 | — |
| Output speed (tok/s) | 88 | 46 |
| Time to first token | 93.55s | 2.10s |
| Specs | ||
| Context window | 1M | 262K |
| Input modalities | text, image, file | text |
FAQ
Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5 or Qwen3.6 Max Preview?
Qwen3.6 Max Preview has the lower blended API price at $2.34 per 1M tokens (3:1 input:output mix), versus $4.00 for the other model. Prices are live from OpenRouter and refresh about hourly.
Which is better for RAG workloads?
For a typical RAG request (30K input / 2K output tokens), Qwen3.6 Max Preview costs about $0.0437 per request versus $0.08. Also compare context windows: Claude Sonnet 5 offers 1M and Qwen3.6 Max Preview offers 262K.
Which scores higher on Artificial Analysis benchmarks?
Claude Sonnet 5 leads on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (53.4 vs 40). Check coding and agentic indices on this page for workload-specific tradeoffs.