Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct
Updated October 21, 2026. 25 benchmarks have a result for both. Coding is ranked on the Vibe Coding Index; every other board is shown as published.
vs boards won of 25 shared
Decision reading
Pick Claude Sonnet 5.5 for coding: it scores 88.9 on the Vibe Coding Index against 30.5 for Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct.
Pick Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct when output tokens cost 10.0x less.
Model AClaude Sonnet 5.5Anthropic88.9/1002 independent benchmarksNo cost per solved taskModel BQwen2.5 Coder 32B InstructQwen30.5/1002 independent benchmarksNo cost per solved task
- Shared results
- 25
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 only
- 70
- Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct only
- 10
- Like-for-like categories
- 6 of 9
Shared results can support a head-to-head reading. Results only one model has describe coverage, not superiority.
Which one for your work
Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, four public coding benchmarks
Claude Sonnet 5.5
Claude Sonnet 5.5 scores 88.9 against 30.5.
2 benchmarks behind each score
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Claude Sonnet 5.5
Claude Sonnet 5.5 leads, 56.0 against 6.7.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 has a Design Arena: websites result, 1326.
Directional only
General
Vals Index
No call
Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 has a Vals Index result, 70.8%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Claude Sonnet 5.5
Claude Sonnet 5.5 takes 1M tokens against 33K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct
Claude Sonnet 5.5 $0.0070, Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct $0.0012 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 88.9 from 2 benchmarks, Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct 30.5 from 2 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Intelligence, 53.9 points apart on average over 2 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- Epoch Capabilities Index: Claude Sonnet 5.5 166.2 against Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct 119.5, 58.4 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 $10.00 against Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct $1.00 per million output tokens, 10.0x apart.
- Context window
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 takes 1M tokens, Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct 33K.
Benchmark by benchmark
First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.
| Category | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Bars | Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 2 | 0 | ||
| Intelligence | 2 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 4 | 0 | ||
| Math | 2 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 4 | 0 | ||
| General | 11 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 25 | 0 |
CodingLike-for-likeFour of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index20
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aider polyglot | Not measured | 16.4% | Only Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct measured |
| SWE-bench Verified | Not measured | 47.0% | Only Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct measured |
| LiveBench coding | 94.7% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1768 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 64.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 92.4% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 69.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 6.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | 83.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 83.2% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI) | 58.3% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | 59.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 29.5% | Only Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct measured |
| SciCode | 61.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| FrontierCode | 52.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| FrontierSWE | 61.9% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| ALE-Bench | 1819.1 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1513 | 1276 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1504 | 1261 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1817 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1741 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | 1737 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 56.0 | 6.7 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 166.2 | 119.5 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index18 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | 1303 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | 1265 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Design Arena: spreadsheets | 1245 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LiveBench research | 83.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LiveBench browser | 84.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | 78.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| SREBench (Vals AI) | 30.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 58.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 42.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 48.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | 10.4% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 75.7% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| BioMysteryBench (Vals AI) | 81.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | 47.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Vals Science Index | 59.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| APEX-Agents | 75.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| SpireClimb | 1.3% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $11,165 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 21 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index40
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench reasoning | 91.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| MysteryMechanism (Vals AI) | 49.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 41.7% | Only Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 55.0% | 3.5% | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 95.6% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Chess puzzles | 59.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 65.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1494 | 1251 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1531 | 1221 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1502 | 1269 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1329 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1331 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | 100.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 88.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 80.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| ProofBench | 100.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| GSM8K | Not measured | 93.0% | Only Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1497 | 1251 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1510 | 1243 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index40
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 52.9% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 63.5% | Only Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | 46.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| MMLU | Not measured | 79.1% | Only Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct measured |
| AI2 Reasoning Challenge | Not measured | 70.5% | Only Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1483 | 1221 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1464 | 1187 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1483 | 1257 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1468 | 1224 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1326 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1367 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1469 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1389 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1458 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1364 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LiveBench design | 85.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index110
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | 70.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LiveBench data analysis | 59.5% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | 67.2% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 51.8% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 91.1% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 82.7% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| DTBench | 97.3% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMCA | 68.3% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Furniture assembly | 75.0% | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| HellaSwag | Not measured | 83.0% | Only Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct measured |
| WinoGrande | Not measured | 80.8% | Only Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct measured |
| LMArena Text | 1473 | 1230 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1492 | 1223 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1467 | 1174 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Vision | 1287 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1484 | 1248 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1456 | 1205 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1535 | 1222 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: French | 1499 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1451 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1454 | 1228 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1465 | 1222 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1495 | 1251 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1474 | 1191 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1461 | 1150 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1289 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1297 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1242 | Not measured | Only Claude Sonnet 5.5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 18 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 5 boards here | |||
What each workload costs
Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.
Chat turn
1K input + 500 output tokens
Claude Sonnet 5.5$0.0070Fits in one request
Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct$0.0012Fits in one request
Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Claude Sonnet 5.5$0.130Fits in one request
Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct$0.036Exceeds the context window
Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Claude Sonnet 5.5$0.500Fits in one request
Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct$0.142Exceeds the context window
Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct costs less
Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.
Specification differences
The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.
| Specification | Anthropic Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Anthropic | Qwen |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | September 28, 2026 | November 11, 2024 |
| Context window | 1M | 33K |
| Input $/Mtok | $2.00 | $0.66 |
| Output $/Mtok | $10.00 | $1.00 |
| Coding index | 88.9 | 30.5 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 2 | 2 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Claude Sonnet 5.5 better than Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct for coding?
Pick Claude Sonnet 5.5 for coding: it scores 88.9 on the Vibe Coding Index against 30.5 for Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct. Pick Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct when output tokens cost 10.0x less.
Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct?
Claude Sonnet 5.5 costs $2.00 per million input tokens and $10.00 per million output tokens; Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct costs $0.66 and $1.00. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct?
Claude Sonnet 5.5, with 1M tokens against 33K.
How many benchmarks is the Claude Sonnet 5.5 vs Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct comparison based on?
25 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. Claude Sonnet 5.5's coding index rests on 2 independent benchmarks and Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct's on 2. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.