# Qwen3.6 35B-A3B vs Sonar

> Qwen3.6 35B-A3B and Sonar score almost the same on the Noometry Index (37.2 vs 37.8), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/qwen3-6-35b-a3b-vs-sonar
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 0

## Summary

- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Qwen3.6 35B-A3B leads 27.2 to 20.3.
- Qwen3.6 35B-A3B is cheaper at $0.25 / $1.49 per million input/output tokens, against $1 / $1 for Sonar.
- Qwen3.6 35B-A3B accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 128K.
- Qwen3.6 35B-A3B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | Perplexity |
| Noometry Index | 37.2 | 37.8 |
| Rank | 194 | 184 |
| Context | 262K | 128K |
| Input $/M | $0.25 | $1 |
| Output $/M | $1.49 | $1 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: 36.7 (#190)
- Sonar: 35.1 (#217)

| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 35.8% | — |
| WeirdML | 34.5% | — |
| LiveBench Coding | — | 35.1% |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: 21.9 (#126)
- Sonar: —

| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | 23% | — |

## Reasoning

- Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: 27.2 (#112)
- Sonar: 20.3 (#221)

| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| NYT Connections (extended) | 41.6% | — |
| CritPt | 0.3% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 26% | — |
| LiveBench Reasoning | — | 46.3% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 22% | — |
| DTBench | 73.9% | — |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | — | 37.9% |
| LMCA | 29.7% | — |
| Surface Evolver Bench | 44.4% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 143.92 | — |
| LiveBench | — | 46.9% |

## Math

- Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: 37.9 (#90)
- Sonar: 31.3 (#197)

| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 20.4% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 86.7% | — |
| LiveBench Math | — | 41.6% |

## Knowledge

- Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: 51.4 (#63)
- Sonar: —

| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 84.8% | — |

## Instruction Following

- Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: —
- Sonar: 71.5 (#146)

| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Instruction Following | — | 76.2% |

## Writing & Preference

- Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: —
- Sonar: 52.6 (#166)

| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 35B-A3B | Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| LiveBench Language | — | 44.1% |

## FAQ

### Is Qwen3.6 35B-A3B better than Sonar?

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B and Sonar score almost the same on the Noometry Index (37.2 vs 37.8), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

### Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B or Sonar?

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B is cheaper. It lists at $0.25 per million input tokens and $1.49 per million output tokens; Sonar lists at $1 and $1.

### Is Qwen3.6 35B-A3B or Sonar better for coding?

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 36.7 versus 35.1 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B does, with 262K tokens against 128K.

### How many benchmarks do Qwen3.6 35B-A3B and Sonar share?

0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen3.6 35B-A3B has 14 scored results on Noometry and Sonar has 7.