# Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Qwen2.5 32B Instruct

> Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 61.9 to 30.1 on the Noometry Index. Qwen2.5 32B Instruct costs 3.3× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Claude Sonnet 5.5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/claude-sonnet-5-5-vs-qwen2-5-32b-instruct
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 3

## Summary

- They share 3 benchmarks with published results for both. Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher in 4 categories and Qwen2.5 32B Instruct in 0 categories; 4 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads 87.9 to 16.2.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 100% for Claude Sonnet 5.5 and 7.4% for Qwen2.5 32B Instruct.
- Qwen2.5 32B Instruct is cheaper at $0.70 / $2.80 per million input/output tokens, against $2 / $10 for Claude Sonnet 5.5.
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 131K.
- Qwen2.5 32B Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Anthropic | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 61.9 | 30.1 |
| Rank | 10 | 297 |
| Context | 1M | 131K |
| Input $/M | $2 | $0.70 |
| Output $/M | $10 | $2.80 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |

## Coding

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: 67.3 (#6)
- Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: 38.7 (#169)

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierCode | 52.1% | — |
| CursorBench | 55.5% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1774 | — |
| FrontierSWE | 61.9% | — |
| SciCode | 61% | — |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | — | 45% |
| LMArena Coding | 1513 | — |
| BigCodeBench Complete | — | 52.3% |
| ALE-Bench | 1,819 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: 45.0 (#16)
- Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: —

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 75.5% | — |

## Reasoning

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: 54.0 (#28)
- Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: 19.2 (#266)

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 165.03 | 128.52 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 80.5% | — |
| CritPt | 31.4% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | — | 0% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1495 | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 65% | — |

## Math

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: 87.9 (#6)
- Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: 16.2 (#296)

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 100% | 7.4% |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 88.8% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 80.5% | — |
| ProofBench | 100% | — |
| LMArena Math | 1510 | — |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 56.1% |
| FrontierMath Erdős | 2.9% | — |

## Knowledge

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: 66.0 (#12)
- Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: 24.9 (#266)

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 95.6% | 46.1% |
| SimpleQA Verified | 46.5% | — |
| LMArena Expert | 1540 | — |

## Multimodal

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: 51.5 (#6)
- Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: —

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1289 | — |
| Furniture Assembly | 75% | — |

## Multilingual

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: 55.3 (#30)
- Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: —

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1452 | — |
| LMArena Chinese | 1522 | — |
| LMArena Russian | 1451 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: 78.3 (#11)
- Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: —

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1495 | — |

## Long Context

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: 45.9 (#28)
- Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: —

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1498 | — |

## Writing & Preference

- Claude Sonnet 5.5: 66.0 (#40)
- Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: —

| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Qwen2.5 32B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1471 | — |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1465 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1474 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 better than Qwen2.5 32B Instruct?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 61.9 to 30.1 on the Noometry Index. Qwen2.5 32B Instruct costs 3.3× 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 Qwen2.5 32B Instruct?

Qwen2.5 32B Instruct is cheaper. It lists at $0.70 per million input tokens and $2.80 per million output tokens; Claude Sonnet 5.5 lists at $2 and $10.

### Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Qwen2.5 32B Instruct better for coding?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 67.3 versus 38.7 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Claude Sonnet 5.5 does, with 1M tokens against 131K.

### How many benchmarks do Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Qwen2.5 32B Instruct share?

3 benchmarks have published results for both models. Claude Sonnet 5.5 has 32 scored results on Noometry and Qwen2.5 32B Instruct has 7.