AI model comparison

Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs Claude Haiku 4.5

Pricing, context window, benchmarks, and features compared side by side. Or skip the guesswork and send one prompt to both.

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B is an open-weight multimodal model from Alibaba Cloud with 35 billion total parameters and 3 billion active parameters per token.

Input / 1M
$0.15
Output / 1M
$1
Context
262K

Claude Haiku 4.5 is Anthropic’s fastest and most efficient model, delivering near-frontier intelligence at a fraction of the cost and latency of larger Claude models.

Input / 1M
$1
Output / 1M
$5
Context
200K

At a glance

Quick verdict

How the two models stack up on the things people ask about most.

Lower price

qwen logo

Qwen3.6 35B A3B

5.6x cheaper for a typical chat

Higher intelligence score

qwen logo

Qwen3.6 35B A3B

18.2 vs 16.9 on Artificial Analysis

Larger context window

qwen logo

Qwen3.6 35B A3B

262K vs 200K tokens

Newer release

qwen logo

Qwen3.6 35B A3B

Released April 27, 2026

Benchmarks

Benchmark scores

Independent scores from Artificial Analysis. Higher is better.

Intelligence index

qwen logoQwen3.6 35B A3B18.2
anthropic logoClaude Haiku 4.516.9

Coding index

qwen logoQwen3.6 35B A3B41.9
anthropic logoClaude Haiku 4.543.9

Agentic index

qwen logoQwen3.6 35B A3B13.1
anthropic logoClaude Haiku 4.58

Pricing

Qwen3.6 35B A3B vs Claude Haiku 4.5 API pricing

Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.

Metricqwen logoQwen3.6 35B A3Banthropic logoClaude Haiku 4.5
Input tokensPer 1M tokens$0.15$1
Output tokensPer 1M tokens$1$5
Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens$0.05$0.10
Cache writePer 1M tokensNot available$1.25
Web searchPer requestNot available$0.01

What it costs in practice

Estimated cost per 1,000 requests at standard rates. Coding and long-document figures also show the cost when the input is already cached.

Chat message

2K in, 500 out

qwen logoQwen3.6 35B A3B$0.80
anthropic logoClaude Haiku 4.5$4.50

Coding task

30K in, 4K out

qwen logoQwen3.6 35B A3B$8.50$5.50 cached
anthropic logoClaude Haiku 4.5$50$23 cached

Long document summary

150K in, 2K out

qwen logoQwen3.6 35B A3B$24.50$9.50 cached
anthropic logoClaude Haiku 4.5$160$25 cached

Specs

Context window and capabilities

How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.

Metricqwen logoQwen3.6 35B A3Banthropic logoClaude Haiku 4.5
Context window262K tokens200K tokens
Max output236K tokens64K tokens
Input typesImage, Text, VideoFile, Image, Text
Output typesTextText
Reasoning effort levelsNot availableNot available
Default reasoning effortNot availableNot available
Release dateApril 27, 2026October 15, 2025

Features

Supported features

API features available for each model.

Metricqwen logoQwen3.6 35B A3Banthropic logoClaude Haiku 4.5
Tool callingSupportedSupported
Structured outputsSupportedSupported
JSON modeSupportedSupported
ReasoningSupportedSupported
TemperatureSupportedSupported
Stop sequencesSupportedSupported
Deterministic seedSupportedNot supported
Verbosity controlNot supportedNot supported

Our take

Qwen3.6 35B A3B is 5.6x cheaper for a typical chat. Qwen3.6 35B A3B scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (18.2 vs 16.9). Qwen3.6 35B A3B has the larger context window (262K vs 200K tokens). The right pick depends on your workload, so the quickest way to settle it is to send the same prompt to both and compare.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Is Qwen3.6 35B A3B or Claude Haiku 4.5 cheaper?

Qwen3.6 35B A3B is cheaper for a typical chat (2K input tokens and 500 output tokens). Qwen3.6 35B A3B costs $0.15 per 1M input tokens and $1 per 1M output tokens, while Claude Haiku 4.5 costs $1 per 1M input tokens and $5 per 1M output tokens.

Which has a bigger context window, Qwen3.6 35B A3B or Claude Haiku 4.5?

Qwen3.6 35B A3B supports up to 262K tokens of context, compared with 200K for Claude Haiku 4.5.

Is Qwen3.6 35B A3B smarter than Claude Haiku 4.5?

On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Qwen3.6 35B A3B scores 18.2 and Claude Haiku 4.5 scores 16.9, putting Qwen3.6 35B A3B ahead. Benchmarks don't capture everything, so the best test is running your own prompts through both.

Can I use Qwen3.6 35B A3B and Claude Haiku 4.5 at the same time?

Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to multiple models at once, so you can see Qwen3.6 35B A3B and Claude Haiku 4.5 answer side by side and keep the better response.

qwen logoanthropic logo

Why choose? Ask both.

Send one prompt to Qwen3.6 35B A3B and Claude Haiku 4.5 at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.