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Precision Benchmarks

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© 2026 CompareLLM. Public benchmark data aggregated from Arena Elo, LiveBench, SWE-bench & OpenRouter.

Every score has a dated snapshot.

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  3. Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs Qwen 2.5 Plus

Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 17, 2026

Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs Qwen 2.5 Plus benchmark

In this head-to-head showdown, Qwen 2.5 Plus delivers higher overall intelligence and human-preferred responses (Elo 1,445 vs 1,280), while Qwen 2.5 Plus leads in SWE-bench software engineering benchmarks (59.2%), while Qwen 2.5 Plus is more budget-friendly at $1/1M per 1M output tokens. Review the complete breakdown below to determine which model best fits your performance and budget requirements.

Executive Comparison Verdict

Bottom Line: Qwen 2.5 Plus holds the advantage over Claude 3.5 Sonnet in overall benchmark performance and human evaluation rankings. Choose Qwen 2.5 Plus for demanding workloads, or review the breakdown below to compare coding and pricing metrics.
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Verified Head-to-Head Advantage Breakdown

9 direct benchmark disciplines evaluated across capability, speed, and cost

Claude 3.5 Sonnet (1)Qwen 2.5 Plus (8)
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
1 of 9 Wins
✓Context window
Qwen 2.5 Plus
8 of 9 Wins
✓Preference Elo✓LiveBench✓SWE-bench✓GPQA Diamond✓Time to first token✓Output speed✓Input price✓Output price
Anthropic
Leads 1 of 9 metrics
Claude 3.5 Sonnet

2024 workhorse. Still a high-intent compare against GPT-4o.

Elo 1,280$15/1M out
Alibaba
Leads 8 of 9 metrics
Qwen 2.5 Plus

Alibaba balanced flagship API model with high-throughput general reasoning.

Elo 1,445$1/1M out
Top Rival Showdowns for Claude 3.5 Sonnet
All Matchups
Compare vs:vs GPT-5vs Gemini 3 Provs Grok 4.6vs DeepSeek V4 Provs Qwen 3 Max
Preference LeaderQwen 2.5 Plus Wins

Qwen 2.5 Plus

Δ 165 Arena Elo pts

Throughput LeaderQwen 2.5 Plus Wins

Qwen 2.5 Plus

110 tok/s

Value per Dollar LeaderQwen 2.5 Plus Wins

Qwen 2.5 Plus

$1 / 1M output

Capability Percentiles

Relative percentile scores computed across all active models in the benchmark catalog.

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Leaders Matchup Capability Radar

Comparing top Western standard models with China's leading frontier rival across 6 skill dimensions. Tap any spoke or dot to inspect.

Tap any node to inspect
0–100 %ile
Head-to-Head Comparison

Overall Matchup Breakdown

Category wins across reasoning intelligence, generation speed, and token cost.

Claude 3.5 Sonnet (1)vsQwen 2.5 Plus (9)
Claude 3.5 Sonnet: 1W (10%)Overall: Qwen 2.5 PlusQwen 2.5 Plus: 9W (90%)
← Claude 3.5 SonnetQwen 2.5 Plus →
🏆Qwen 2.5 Plus(5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Benchmark
Claude 3.5 SonnetvsQwen 2.5 Plus
Preference Elo
1,280vs1,445+165
Coding Elo
—vs1,460
SWE-bench
49%vs59.2%+10.2%
LiveBench
52.1%vs63.5%+11.4%
GPQA Diamond
65%vs75.8%+10.8%
Claude 3.5 Sonnet: 0WQwen 2.5 Plus: 5W
🏆Qwen 2.5 Plus(2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Benchmark
Claude 3.5 SonnetvsQwen 2.5 Plus
Output speed
80 tok/svs110 tok/s+30 tok/s
Time to first token
280 msvs180 ms+100 ms
Claude 3.5 Sonnet: 0WQwen 2.5 Plus: 2W
🏆Qwen 2.5 Plus(2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Benchmark
Claude 3.5 SonnetvsQwen 2.5 Plus
Output price
$15/1Mvs$1/1M+$14/1M
Input price
$3/1Mvs$0.25/1M+$2.75/1M
Context window
200kvs128k+72k
Claude 3.5 Sonnet: 1WQwen 2.5 Plus: 2W

Side-by-Side Benchmark Matrix

Preference Elo+165
Claude 3.5 Sonnet1,280
lmarena · Aug 17, 2026
Qwen 2.5 Plus1,445
lmarena · Aug 17, 2026
Coding Elo
Claude 3.5 Sonnet—
Qwen 2.5 Plus1,460
lmarena · Aug 17, 2026
LiveBench+11.4%
Claude 3.5 Sonnet52.1%
livebench · Aug 17, 2026
Qwen 2.5 Plus63.5%
livebench · Aug 17, 2026
SWE-bench+10.2%
Claude 3.5 Sonnet49%
swebench · Aug 17, 2026
Qwen 2.5 Plus59.2%
swebench · Aug 17, 2026
GPQA Diamond+10.8%
Claude 3.5 Sonnet65%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Qwen 2.5 Plus75.8%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Time to first token+100 ms
Claude 3.5 Sonnet280 ms
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Qwen 2.5 Plus180 ms
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Output speed+30 tok/s
Claude 3.5 Sonnet80 tok/s
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Qwen 2.5 Plus110 tok/s
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Input price+$2.75/1M
Claude 3.5 Sonnet$3/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Qwen 2.5 Plus$0.25/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Output price+$14/1M
Claude 3.5 Sonnet$15/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Qwen 2.5 Plus$1/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Context window+72k
Claude 3.5 Sonnet200k
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Qwen 2.5 Plus128k
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
BenchmarkClaude 3.5 SonnetQwen 2.5 PlusAdvantage Delta
Preference Elo
1,280
lmarena · Aug 17, 2026
1,445
lmarena · Aug 17, 2026
+165
Coding Elo—
1,460
lmarena · Aug 17, 2026
—
LiveBench
52.1%
livebench · Aug 17, 2026
63.5%
livebench · Aug 17, 2026
+11.4%
SWE-bench
49%
swebench · Aug 17, 2026
59.2%
swebench · Aug 17, 2026
+10.2%
GPQA Diamond
65%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
75.8%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
+10.8%
Time to first token
280 ms
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
180 ms
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
+100 ms
Output speed
80 tok/s
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
110 tok/s
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
+30 tok/s
Input price
$3/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
$0.25/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
+$2.75/1M
Output price
$15/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
$1/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
+$14/1M
Context window
200k
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
128k
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
+72k
Interactive Simulator (USD)

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Simulate monthly production API costs in USD (US Dollar).

Save up to 93% with Qwen 2.5 Plus
Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo
Quick Presets:
Token Ratio (In vs Out)70% In / 30% Out
RAG / Search (10% out)Coding / Chat (50% out)
Claude 3.5 Sonnet$330.00 / mo
In: $105Out: $225
Qwen 2.5 Plus$23.75 / mo
In: $8.75Out: $15
Estimated Cost Delta

Qwen 2.5 Plus is estimated to save $306.25/month ($3,675/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

  • 1
    Qwen 2.5 Plus:Pick Qwen 2.5 Plus when repo-level coding accuracy is the constraint.
  • 2
    Qwen 2.5 Plus:Pick Qwen 2.5 Plus when time-to-first-token matters more than peak Elo.
  • 3
    Qwen 2.5 Plus:Pick Qwen 2.5 Plus as the default general assistant.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsQwen 2.5 Plus

Higher SWE-bench (59.2%).

High-volume chatQwen 2.5 Plus

Lower output list price ($1/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIQwen 2.5 Plus

Lower TTFT (180 ms).

Long-document RAGClaude 3.5 Sonnet

Larger window (200k).

Screenshots / visionQwen 2.5 Plus

Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Qwen 2.5 Plus).

Target WorkloadRecommended PickEvaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agentsQwen 2.5 PlusHigher SWE-bench (59.2%).
High-volume chatQwen 2.5 PlusLower output list price ($1/1M).
Voice / low-latency UIQwen 2.5 PlusLower TTFT (180 ms).
Long-document RAGClaude 3.5 SonnetLarger window (200k).
Screenshots / visionQwen 2.5 PlusBoth accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Qwen 2.5 Plus).
Community Sentiment

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CompareLLM AI Matrix

Verified Head-to-Head Telemetry

LIVE BENCHMARK
VS
Anthropic

Claude 3.5 Sonnet

Elo 1,280
SWE-bench49%
Speed (tok/s)80 tok/s
Input / 1M Tokens$3/1M
Output / 1M Tokens$15/1M
Alibaba

Qwen 2.5 Plus

Elo 1,445
SWE-bench59.2%
Speed (tok/s)110 tok/s
Input / 1M Tokens$0.25/1M
Output / 1M Tokens$1/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Qwen 2.5 Plus?
Qwen 2.5 Plus has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,445). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.
Which is better at coding, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Qwen 2.5 Plus?
Qwen 2.5 Plus leads SWE-bench at 59.2% vs 49%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.
Which is cheaper to run in production?
Qwen 2.5 Plus output tokens are $1/1M versus $15/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or Qwen 2.5 Plus?
Qwen 2.5 Plus has the lower time-to-first-token (180 ms vs 280 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.
Which has the larger context window?
Claude 3.5 Sonnet accepts 200k tokens versus 128k.
Can I self-host either model?
Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.
Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?
No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.
What does preference Elo mean on this page?
Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Qwen 2.5 Plus Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All Claude 3.5 Sonnet matchups →|All Qwen 2.5 Plus matchups →
Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs Claude 3.7 Sonnet (next sonnet)Qwen 2.5 Plus vs Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct (previous qwen)Qwen 2.5 Plus vs Qwen 2.5 Coder 32B (next qwen)Claude Opus 4.5 vs Qwen 2.5 PlusClaude Opus 4.6 vs Qwen 2.5 PlusClaude Sonnet 4.5 vs Qwen 2.5 Plus