Claude Sonnet 3.6 (2022-10-22) vs Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking

Compare Claude Sonnet 3.6 (2022-10-22) by Anthropic against Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking by Qwen, context windows of 200K vs 66K, tested across 30 shared challenges. Updated March 2026.

Which is better, Claude Sonnet 3.6 (2022-10-22) or Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking?

Claude Sonnet 3.6 (2022-10-22) and Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking are both competitive models. Claude Sonnet 3.6 (2022-10-22) costs $3/M input tokens vs $0.15/M for Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking. Context windows: 200K vs 66K tokens. Compare their real outputs side by side below.

Key Differences Between Claude Sonnet 3.6 (2022-10-22) and Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking

Claude Sonnet 3.6 (2022-10-22) is made by anthropic while Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking is from qwen. Claude Sonnet 3.6 (2022-10-22) has a 200K token context window compared to Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking's 66K. On pricing, Claude Sonnet 3.6 (2022-10-22) costs $3/M input tokens vs $0.15/M for Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking.

Our Verdict
Claude Sonnet 3.6 (2022-10-22)
Claude Sonnet 3.6 (2022-10-22)
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking

No community votes yet. On paper, these are closely matched - try both with your actual task to see which fits your workflow.

Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking is 10x cheaper per token — worth considering if cost matters.

Too close to call

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