Model comparison
Claude Sonnet 5 vs Qwen3.5-27B
Head-to-head evidence from 14 shared benchmark results across 5 categories. Overall scores shown here use the public BenchAlign v5 ranking lane.
Public leaderboard positions: Claude Sonnet 5 #29 (Estimated); Qwen3.5-27B #45 (Supported). Intervals and evidence labels describe ranking uncertainty, not a guarantee for a specific workload.
Evidence parity. Claude Sonnet 5 and Qwen3.5-27B share 14 comparable benchmark results. 3 of 8 categories are comparable. 22 results are unique to Claude Sonnet 5; 14 to Qwen3.5-27B.
Updated July 23, 2026- Shared results
- 14
- Claude Sonnet 5 only
- 22
- Qwen3.5-27B only
- 14
- Comparable categories
- 3 / 8
Pick Claude Sonnet 5 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Qwen3.5-27B only becomes the better choice if knowledge is the priority or you want the cheaper token bill.
Confidence note. This is a partial-evidence comparison with 14 shared benchmark results across 5 evidence categories; 3 of 8 categories currently have scoreable aggregates for both models. Treat the verdict as directional until coverage is more balanced.
Why this result
Claude Sonnet 5 is clearly ahead on the BenchAlign aggregate, 65.32 to 60.7. 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 81.9 against 52. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is Terminal-Bench 2.0, 80.4% to 41.6%. Qwen3.5-27B does hit back in knowledge, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.
Claude Sonnet 5 is also the more expensive model on tokens at $2.00 input / $10.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $0.00 input / $0.00 output per 1M tokens for Qwen3.5-27B. That is roughly Infinityx on output cost alone. Claude Sonnet 5 gives you the larger context window at 1M, compared with 262K for Qwen3.5-27B.
Category breakdown
Exact category averages are shown below. Not measured means BenchLM does not have enough sourced public coverage for that model and category.
| Category | Claude Sonnet 5 | Δ | Qwen3.5-27B |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agentic | Claude Sonnet 581.9 | Margin← 29.9 | Qwen3.5-27B52.0 |
| Knowledge | Claude Sonnet 557.4 | Margin→ 25.3 | Qwen3.5-27B82.7 |
| Coding | Claude Sonnet 576.7 | Margin← 11.8 | Qwen3.5-27B64.9 |
| Reasoning | Claude Sonnet 5Not measured | MarginNo overlap | Qwen3.5-27B60.6 |
| Multilingual | Claude Sonnet 5Not measured | MarginNo overlap | Qwen3.5-27B82.2 |
| Multimodal | Claude Sonnet 588.3 | MarginNo overlap | Qwen3.5-27BNot measured |
| Inst. Following | Claude Sonnet 5Not measured | MarginNo overlap | Qwen3.5-27B95.0 |
Decisive benchmark drivers
The largest measured benchmark gaps in this matchup, with exact reported values.
More
- Source ↗
Terminal-Bench 2.0
AgenticA 80.4%B 41.6%Winner: Claude Sonnet 5Δ 38.8Terminal-Bench 2.0: Claude Sonnet 5 scored 80.4%; Qwen3.5-27B scored 41.6%. Claude Sonnet 5 wins this benchmark. - Source ↗
OSWorld-Verified
AgenticA 81.2%B 56.2%Winner: Claude Sonnet 5Δ 25OSWorld-Verified: Claude Sonnet 5 scored 81.2%; Qwen3.5-27B scored 56.2%. Claude Sonnet 5 wins this benchmark. - Source ↗
BrowseComp
AgenticA 84.7%B 61%Winner: Claude Sonnet 5Δ 23.7BrowseComp: Claude Sonnet 5 scored 84.7%; Qwen3.5-27B scored 61%. Claude Sonnet 5 wins this benchmark. - Source ↗
SWE-bench Verified
CodingA 85.2%B 72.4%Winner: Claude Sonnet 5Δ 12.8SWE-bench Verified: Claude Sonnet 5 scored 85.2%; Qwen3.5-27B scored 72.4%. Claude Sonnet 5 wins this benchmark.
Operational comparison
Runtime and commercial metrics are compared only when both models have a complete sourced value.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5 | Qwen3.5-27B | Comparison |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input / output priceUSD per 1M tokens | Claude Sonnet 5$2 input / $10 output | Qwen3.5-27B$0 input / $0 output | Qwen3.5-27B has the lower combined listed price. |
| Generation speedtokens per second | Claude Sonnet 5Not available | Qwen3.5-27BNot available | A complete speed comparison is not available. |
| First-answer latencyseconds to first token | Claude Sonnet 5Not available | Qwen3.5-27BNot available | A complete latency comparison is not available. |
| Context windowmaximum listed tokens | Claude Sonnet 51M | Qwen3.5-27B262K | Claude Sonnet 5 lists the larger context window. |
Benchmark Deep Dive
AgenticClaude Sonnet 5 wins15 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5 | Qwen3.5-27B | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench 2.0Source | 80.4% | 41.6% | Claude Sonnet 5 leads |
| BrowseCompSource | 84.7% | 61% | Claude Sonnet 5 leads |
| HLE w/ toolsSource | 57.4% | — | Not comparable |
| OSWorld-VerifiedSource | 81.2% | 56.2% | Claude Sonnet 5 leads |
| GDPval-AASource | 1607 | — | Not comparable |
| AA Agentic IndexSource | 46.7% | — | Not comparable |
| GDPval-AASource | 55.4% | — | Not comparable |
| AA BriefcaseSource | 1388 | — | Not comparable |
| AA AutomationBenchSource | 39.2% | — | Not comparable |
| AA EnterpriseOps-GymSource | 44.7% | — | Not comparable |
| AA Harvey LABSource | 90.1% | — | Not comparable |
| AA Tau3 BankingSource | 28.2% | — | Not comparable |
| aaTerminalBench21Source | 80.5% | — | Not comparable |
| τ²-bench resultsSource | — | 93.9% | Not comparable |
| Gert LabsSource | — | 39.41% | Not comparable |
CodingClaude Sonnet 5 wins10 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5 | Qwen3.5-27B | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench VerifiedSource | 85.2% | 72.4% | Claude Sonnet 5 leads |
| SWE-bench ProSource | 63.2% | — | Not comparable |
| SWE MultilingualSource | 78.3% | — | Not comparable |
| SWE MultimodalSource | 28.1% | — | Not comparable |
| Terminal-Bench 2.0Source | 80.4% | — | Not comparable |
| FrontierCode 1.1 MainSource | 42.7% | — | Not comparable |
| cursorBench32Source | 61.5% | — | Not comparable |
| AA Coding IndexSource | 71.5% | — | Not comparable |
| AA-SciCodeSource | 53.6% | 39.5% | Claude Sonnet 5 leads |
| SWE-RebenchSource | — | 58.9% | Not comparable |
Reasoning3 benchmarks
KnowledgeQwen3.5-27B wins11 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5 | Qwen3.5-27B | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| HLESource | 57.4% | — | Not comparable |
| HLE w/o toolsSource | 43.2% | — | Not comparable |
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexSource | 53.4% | 33.8% | Claude Sonnet 5 leads |
| AA-GPQA DiamondSource | 91.1% | 85.8% | Claude Sonnet 5 leads |
| AA-HLESource | 39.6% | 22.2% | Claude Sonnet 5 leads |
| AA-Omniscience IndexSource | 15.3% | -42.0% | Claude Sonnet 5 leads |
| AA-Omniscience AccuracySource | 38.3% | 21.0% | Claude Sonnet 5 leads |
| AA-Omniscience Hallucination RateSource | 37.3% | 79.7% | Claude Sonnet 5 leads |
| MMLU-ProSource | — | 86.1% | Not comparable |
| SuperGPQASource | — | 65.6% | Not comparable |
| GPQASource | — | 85.5% | Not comparable |
Multilingual1 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5 | Qwen3.5-27B | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-ProXSource | — | 82.2% | Not comparable |
Multimodal8 benchmarks
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5 | Qwen3.5-27B | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| CharXivSource | 88.3% | — | Not comparable |
| CharXiv w/o toolsSource | 77% | — | Not comparable |
| AA-MMMU-ProSource | 77.3% | 75.0% | Claude Sonnet 5 leads |
| Design Arena WebsiteSource | 1314 | — | Not comparable |
| MMMUSource | — | 82.3% | Not comparable |
| MMVUSource | — | 73.3% | Not comparable |
| MathVisionSource | — | 86.0% | Not comparable |
| V*Source | — | 93.7% | Not comparable |
Frequently Asked Questions (4)
Which is better, Claude Sonnet 5 or Qwen3.5-27B?
Claude Sonnet 5 is ahead on BenchLM's BenchAlign leaderboard, 65.32 to 60.7. The biggest single separator in this matchup is Terminal-Bench 2.0, where the scores are 80.4% and 41.6%.
Which is better for knowledge tasks, Claude Sonnet 5 or Qwen3.5-27B?
Qwen3.5-27B has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 82.7 versus 57.4. Inside this category, AA-Omniscience Index is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Which is better for coding, Claude Sonnet 5 or Qwen3.5-27B?
Claude Sonnet 5 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 76.7 versus 64.9. Inside this category, AA-SciCode is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Which is better for agentic tasks, Claude Sonnet 5 or Qwen3.5-27B?
Claude Sonnet 5 has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 81.9 versus 52. Inside this category, Terminal-Bench 2.0 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
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