Head-to-head comparison across 3benchmark categories. Overall scores shown here use BenchLM's provisional ranking lane.
Claude Sonnet 5
94
Qwen 3.6 Max (preview)
78
Pick Claude Sonnet 5 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Qwen 3.6 Max (preview) only becomes the better choice if knowledge is the priority.
Agentic
+16.4 difference
Coding
+9.1 difference
Knowledge
+16.5 difference
Claude Sonnet 5
Qwen 3.6 Max (preview)
$3 / $15
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
1M
256K
Pick Claude Sonnet 5 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Qwen 3.6 Max (preview) only becomes the better choice if knowledge is the priority.
Claude Sonnet 5 is clearly ahead on the provisional aggregate, 94 to 78. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.
Claude Sonnet 5's sharpest advantage is in agentic, where it averages 81.8 against 65.4. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is Terminal-Bench 2.0, 80.4% to 65.4%. Qwen 3.6 Max (preview) does hit back in knowledge, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.
Claude Sonnet 5 gives you the larger context window at 1M, compared with 256K for Qwen 3.6 Max (preview).
Claude Sonnet 5 is ahead on BenchLM's provisional leaderboard, 94 to 78. The biggest single separator in this matchup is Terminal-Bench 2.0, where the scores are 80.4% and 65.4%.
Qwen 3.6 Max (preview) has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 73.9 versus 57.4. Claude Sonnet 5 stays close enough that the answer can still flip depending on your workload.
Claude Sonnet 5 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 63.2 versus 54.1. Inside this category, Terminal-Bench 2.0 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Claude Sonnet 5 has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 81.8 versus 65.4. Inside this category, Terminal-Bench 2.0 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
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