Noometry

Model comparison

Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Qwen3 Max

Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 61.9 to 43.7 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3 Max costs 1.7× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Claude Sonnet 5.5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 20 shared benchmarks.

Claude Sonnet 5.5 Anthropic

61.9

Rank #10 Confirmed

Qwen3 Max Alibaba (Qwen)

43.7

Rank #87 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 20 benchmarks with published results for both. Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher in 8 categories and Qwen3 Max in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads 87.9 to 38.7.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3): 88.8% for Claude Sonnet 5.5 and 18.9% for Qwen3 Max.
  • Qwen3 Max is cheaper at $1.20 / $6 per million input/output tokens, against $2 / $10 for Claude Sonnet 5.5.
  • Claude Sonnet 5.5 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 262K.

Side by side

Claude Sonnet 5.5Qwen3 Max
ProviderAnthropicAlibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index61.943.7
Released2026-09-282025-09-23
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
Context window1M262K
Max output128K66K
Input $ / M tokens$2$1.20
Output $ / M tokens$10$6
Results tracked3233

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Category by category

Coding Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 67.3 (#6), Qwen3 Max: 43.0 (#93)

BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Qwen3 Max
LMArena Coding15131456
ALE-Bench1,819370.45
FrontierCode52.1%—
CursorBench55.5%—
LMArena WebDev1774—
FrontierSWE61.9%—
SciCode61%—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 45.0 (#16), Qwen3 Max: —

BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Qwen3 Max
APEX-Agents75.5%—
Vending-Bench 2—71.56

Reasoning Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 54.0 (#28), Qwen3 Max: 22.6 (#190)

BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Qwen3 Max
NYT Connections (extended)80.5%30.1%
LMArena Hard Prompts14951448
Mystery Game Puzzles65%5%
Epoch Capabilities Index165.03142.38
Kagi LLM Benchmark—72.5%
CritPt31.4%—
Chess Puzzles—4%
DTBench—82.1%
LMCA—28.3%

Math Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 87.9 (#6), Qwen3 Max: 38.7 (#131)

BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Qwen3 Max
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)88.8%18.9%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025100%73.3%
LMArena Math15101446
FrontierMath Tier 480.5%—
ProofBench100%—
MATH Level 5—97.1%
FrontierMath Erdős2.9%—

Knowledge Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 66.0 (#12), Qwen3 Max: 48.1 (#78)

BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Qwen3 Max
GPQA Diamond95.6%72.6%
SimpleQA Verified46.5%48.7%
LMArena Expert15401455

Multimodal Not comparable

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 51.5 (#6), Qwen3 Max: —

BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Qwen3 Max
LMArena Vision1289—
Furniture Assembly75%—

Multilingual Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 55.3 (#30), Qwen3 Max: 53.7 (#62)

BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Qwen3 Max
LMArena Non-English14521429
LMArena Chinese15221478
LMArena Russian14511428
LMArena French—1449
LMArena German—1463
LMArena Japanese—1397
LMArena Korean—1399
LMArena Spanish—1462

Instruction Following Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 78.3 (#11), Qwen3 Max: 74.8 (#87)

BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Qwen3 Max
LMArena Instruction Following14951419

Long Context Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 45.9 (#28), Qwen3 Max: 41.6 (#134)

BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Qwen3 Max
LMArena Longer Query14981438
Fiction.LiveBench—66.7%
CL-bench—14.5%

Writing & Preference Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads

Claude Sonnet 5.5: 66.0 (#40), Qwen3 Max: 62.4 (#76)

BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5.5Qwen3 Max
LMArena Text14711439
LMArena Creative Writing14651402
LMArena Multi-Turn14741446

Frequently asked questions

Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 better than Qwen3 Max?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 61.9 to 43.7 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3 Max costs 1.7× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Claude Sonnet 5.5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Qwen3 Max?

Qwen3 Max is cheaper. It lists at $1.20 per million input tokens and $6 per million output tokens; Claude Sonnet 5.5 lists at $2 and $10.

Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Qwen3 Max better for coding?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 67.3 versus 43.0 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 does, with 1M tokens against 262K.

How many benchmarks do Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Qwen3 Max share?

20 benchmarks have published results for both models. Claude Sonnet 5.5 has 32 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 Max has 33.

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