Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 16, 2026

Claude Opus 4.6 vs Qwen3 235B benchmark

Name: Claude Opus 4.6 vs Qwen3 235B AI benchmark comparison
Creator: CompareLLM
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This page compares Claude Opus 4.6 (Anthropic) and Qwen3 235B (Alibaba) using the latest snapshots we have as of Aug 16, 2026. On preference Elo, Claude Opus 4.6 is ahead by 134 points (1,574 vs 1,440; seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). On SWE-bench coding, Claude Opus 4.6 resolves 75.9% versus 59.4% (seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). Qwen3 235B streams faster (74 tok/s) while Qwen3 235B is the cheaper output token ($1.82/1M). Claude Opus 4.6 has the larger context window (1M tokens). Every cell below is a dated snapshot from a named public source — we do not invent missing scores, and we do not run SWE-bench ourselves.

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Anthropic

Claude Opus 4.6

Follow-on Opus release. Slightly behind 4.5 on official SWE-bench bash-only in the last published sweep; stronger long-horizon agent traces.

Elo 1,574$25/1M out

Alibaba

Qwen3 235B

Open-weight Qwen3 mixture-of-experts.

Elo 1,440$1.8199999999999998/1M out

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Model A

Model B

Quick vs:vs Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude 3.7 Sonnet vs GPT-5

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Claude Opus 4.6 (6)vsQwen3 235B (4)

Claude Opus 4.6: 6W (60%)Overall: Claude Opus 4.6Qwen3 235B: 4W (40%)

← Claude Opus 4.6Qwen3 235B →

Claude Opus 4.6 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

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

Preference Elo

1,574vs1,440

Coding Elo

1,570vs—

SWE-bench

75.9%vs59.4%

LiveBench

72%vs63.5%

GPQA Diamond

84.8%vs76.8%

Claude Opus 4.6: 5WQwen3 235B: 0W

Qwen3 235B (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

64 tok/svs74 tok/s

Time to first token

360 msvs320 ms

Claude Opus 4.6: 0WQwen3 235B: 2W

Qwen3 235B (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$25/1Mvs$1.82/1M

Input price

$5/1Mvs$0.45/1M

Context window

1Mvs131k

Claude Opus 4.6: 1WQwen3 235B: 2W

Capability Matchup Radar

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Each spoke is a skill. Farther from the center is better (0–100th percentile). Tap any dot to inspect details.

Tap any node to inspect

Percentile 0–100

Dimensional AdvantageClaude Opus 4.6 4/6

Preference Elo

Claude Opus 4.6

134 pts advantage

Throughput Speed

Qwen3 235B

10 tok/s faster

Price Efficiency

Qwen3 235B

$23.18/1M cheaper

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

—

Elo

High is better

+9%1,574

EloHigh is better

1,440

Code Elo

High is better

1,570

Code EloHigh is better

—

LiveBench

High is better

+13%72%

LiveBenchHigh is better

63.5%

SWE-bench

High is better

+28%75.9%

SWE-benchHigh is better

59.4%

GPQA

High is better

+10%84.8%

GPQAHigh is better

76.8%

TTFT

Low is better

360 ms

TTFTLow is better

320 ms+13%

Speed

High is better

64 tok/s

SpeedHigh is better

74 tok/s+16%

In $

Low is better

$5/1M

In $Low is better

$0.45/1M+999%

Out $

Low is better

$25/1M

Out $Low is better

$1.82/1M+1274%

Context

High is better

+663%1M

ContextHigh is better

131k

Interactive Simulator

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Simulate monthly production API costs based on published $/1M tokens.

Save up to 92% with Qwen3 235B

Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo

Quick Presets:

Token Ratio (In vs Out)70% In / 30% Out

RAG / Search (10% out)Coding / Chat (50% out)

Claude Opus 4.6$550.00 / mo

In: $175.00Out: $375.00

Qwen3 235B$43.22 / mo

In: $15.92Out: $27.30

Estimated Cost Delta

Qwen3 235B is estimated to save $506.78/month ($6,081/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

1
Claude Opus 4.6:Pick Claude Opus 4.6 when repo-level coding accuracy is the constraint.
2
Qwen3 235B:Pick Qwen3 235B when you are optimizing output cost.
3
Qwen3 235B:Pick Qwen3 235B when time-to-first-token matters more than peak Elo.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsClaude Opus 4.6

Higher SWE-bench (75.9%).

High-volume chatQwen3 235B

Lower output list price ($1.82/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIQwen3 235B

Lower TTFT (320 ms).

Long-document RAGClaude Opus 4.6

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionClaude Opus 4.6

Claude Opus 4.6 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Claude Opus 4.6	Higher SWE-bench (75.9%).
High-volume chat	Qwen3 235B	Lower output list price ($1.82/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Qwen3 235B	Lower TTFT (320 ms).
Long-document RAG	Claude Opus 4.6	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Claude Opus 4.6	Claude Opus 4.6 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

View all news

launchMay 10, 2026

Claude Opus 4.6: the May follow-on that still shows up in old bookmarks

Slightly behind 4.5 on one official SWE-bench sweep; stronger long-horizon traces. We keep the row for old vs URLs.

launchSep 20, 2025

Qwen3 235B: the open MoE Qwen, not the Max SKU

Sep 2025 open-weight mixture-of-experts. Self-host path. Don’t confuse it with Qwen 3 Max.

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LIVE

Anthropic

Claude Opus 4.6

Elo 1,574

LiveBench72%

SWE-bench75.9%

Speed64 tok/s

Output cost$25/1M

Alibaba

Qwen3 235B

Elo 1,440

LiveBench63.5%

SWE-bench59.4%

Speed74 tok/s

Output cost$1.82/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Claude Opus 4.6 or Qwen3 235B?: Claude Opus 4.6 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,574). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.
Which is better at coding, Claude Opus 4.6 or Qwen3 235B?: Claude Opus 4.6 leads SWE-bench at 75.9% vs 59.4%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.
Which is cheaper to run in production?: Qwen3 235B output tokens are $1.82/1M versus $25/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, Claude Opus 4.6 or Qwen3 235B?: Qwen3 235B has the lower time-to-first-token (320 ms vs 360 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.
Which has the larger context window?: Claude Opus 4.6 accepts 1M tokens versus 131k.
Can I self-host either model?: Qwen3 235B is marked open-weights in our catalog. The other side is a closed API. Check the provider license before you ship weights.
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 Opus 4.6 and Qwen3 235B Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All Claude Opus 4.6 matchups →|All Qwen3 235B matchups →

Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Opus 4.5 (previous opus)Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Opus 4.8 (next opus)Qwen3 235B vs Qwen 2.5 Coder 32B (previous qwen)Qwen3 235B vs Qwen QwQ 32B (next qwen)Claude Sonnet 5 vs Claude Opus 4.6 Claude Fable 5 vs Claude Opus 4.6

Claude Opus 4.6 vs Qwen3 235B benchmark

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Claude Opus 4.6 (6)vsQwen3 235B (4)

Claude Opus 4.6: 6W (60%)Overall: Claude Opus 4.6Qwen3 235B: 4W (40%)

← Claude Opus 4.6Qwen3 235B →

Claude Opus 4.6 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

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

Preference Elo

1,574vs1,440

Coding Elo

1,570vs—

SWE-bench

75.9%vs59.4%

LiveBench

72%vs63.5%

GPQA Diamond

84.8%vs76.8%

Claude Opus 4.6: 5WQwen3 235B: 0W

Qwen3 235B (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

64 tok/svs74 tok/s

Time to first token

360 msvs320 ms

Claude Opus 4.6: 0WQwen3 235B: 2W

Qwen3 235B (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$25/1Mvs$1.82/1M

Input price

$5/1Mvs$0.45/1M

Context window

1Mvs131k

Claude Opus 4.6: 1WQwen3 235B: 2W

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsClaude Opus 4.6

Higher SWE-bench (75.9%).

High-volume chatQwen3 235B

Lower output list price ($1.82/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIQwen3 235B

Lower TTFT (320 ms).

Long-document RAGClaude Opus 4.6

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionClaude Opus 4.6

Claude Opus 4.6 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Claude Opus 4.6	Higher SWE-bench (75.9%).
High-volume chat	Qwen3 235B	Lower output list price ($1.82/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Qwen3 235B	Lower TTFT (320 ms).
Long-document RAG	Claude Opus 4.6	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Claude Opus 4.6	Claude Opus 4.6 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Claude Opus 4.6 or Qwen3 235B?

Claude Opus 4.6 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,574). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.

Which is better at coding, Claude Opus 4.6 or Qwen3 235B?

Claude Opus 4.6 leads SWE-bench at 75.9% vs 59.4%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.

Which is cheaper to run in production?

Qwen3 235B output tokens are $1.82/1M versus $25/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.

Which is faster, Claude Opus 4.6 or Qwen3 235B?

Qwen3 235B has the lower time-to-first-token (320 ms vs 360 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.

Which has the larger context window?

Claude Opus 4.6 accepts 1M tokens versus 131k.

Can I self-host either model?

Qwen3 235B is marked open-weights in our catalog. The other side is a closed API. Check the provider license before you ship weights.

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 Opus 4.6 and Qwen3 235B Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

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Interactive Comparison Diagram

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Intelligence & Reasoning

Speed & Latency

Pricing & Capacity

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Claude Opus 4.6

Qwen3 235B

Qwen3 235B

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Claude Opus 4.6: the May follow-on that still shows up in old bookmarks

Qwen3 235B: the open MoE Qwen, not the Max SKU

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CompareLLM Matrix

Claude Opus 4.6

Qwen3 235B

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Intelligence & Reasoning

Speed & Latency

Pricing & Capacity

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Claude Opus 4.6

Qwen3 235B

Qwen3 235B

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Claude Opus 4.6: the May follow-on that still shows up in old bookmarks

Qwen3 235B: the open MoE Qwen, not the Max SKU

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

Share card

CompareLLM Matrix

Claude Opus 4.6

Qwen3 235B

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons