GPT-3.5-turbo vs Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) vs Qwen-VL OCR
Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen-VL OCR 36, Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) 36, GPT-3.5-turbo 28). The right pick depends on what you value most.
OpenAIGPT-3.5-turbo
28/100- ECI—
- Price$0.50 / $1.50
- Context16K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen Plus Character (Japanese)
36/100- ECI—
- Price$0.50 / $1.40
- Context8K
- Alibaba (Qwen)
Qwen-VL OCR
36/100- ECI—
- Price$0.72 / $0.72
- Context34K
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Qwen-VL OCR 36/100, Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) 36/100, GPT-3.5-turbo 28/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen-VL OCR on price and Qwen-VL OCR for long inputs. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
- CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
- Lowest priceQwen-VL OCRQwen-VL OCR $0.72 · Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) $0.725 · GPT-3.5-turbo $0.75 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen-VL OCRQwen-VL OCR 34,096 · GPT-3.5-turbo 16,385 · Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) 8,192 tokens
- Widest inputsQwen-VL OCRGPT-3.5-turbo: Text · Qwen Plus Character (Japanese): Text · Qwen-VL OCR: Text, Images
- Self-hostingNo open weightsAll three are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | GPT-3.5-turbo | Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) | Qwen-VL OCR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 56 | 57 | 57 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 0 | 25 | 25 |
| Context window | 20% | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Overall | 100% | 28/100 | 36/100 | 36/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | GPT-3.5-turboOpenAI | Qwen Plus Character (Japanese)Alibaba (Qwen) | Qwen-VL OCRAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.50 (best) | $0.50 (best) | $0.72 |
| Output | $1.50 | $1.40 | $0.72 (best) |
| Cached input | Free | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.75 | $0.725 | $0.72 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official OpenAI API | Official Alibaba API | Official Alibaba API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 16,385 tokens | 8,192 tokens | 34,096 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 4,096 tokens (best) | 512 tokens | 4,096 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | No | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No | No |
| Tool calling | No | Yes | No |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | gpt-3.5-turbo | qwen-plus-character-ja | qwen-vl-ocr |
| API providers | 11 (best) | 1 | 1 |
| Released | Mar 1, 2023 | Jan 2024 | Oct 28, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Sep 1, 2021 | Apr 2024 | Apr 2024 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- GPT-3.5-turbo$8.00
- Qwen Plus Character (Japanese)$7.80
- Qwen-VL OCR$8.64
Which should you choose?
Which is better: GPT-3.5-turbo, Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) or Qwen-VL OCR?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Qwen-VL OCR 36/100, Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) 36/100, GPT-3.5-turbo 28/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen-VL OCR on price and Qwen-VL OCR for long inputs. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
Which is cheaper, GPT-3.5-turbo, Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) or Qwen-VL OCR?
Qwen-VL OCR is cheaper at $0.72 input / $0.72 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) costs $0.50 input / $1.40 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price); GPT-3.5-turbo costs $0.50 input / $1.50 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.72 per million tokens for Qwen-VL OCR versus $0.725 for Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) (1× as much) and $0.75 for GPT-3.5-turbo (1× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. GPT-3.5-turbo has not been scored yet, Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) has not been scored yet and Qwen-VL OCR has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for GPT-3.5-turbo, Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) and Qwen-VL OCR yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Note that GPT-3.5-turbo and Qwen-VL OCR does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen-VL OCR has the largest context window at 34,096 tokens, against 16,385 for GPT-3.5-turbo and 8,192 for Qwen Plus Character (Japanese). Maximum output per response: GPT-3.5-turbo up to 4,096, Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) up to 512, Qwen-VL OCR up to 4,096 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
GPT-3.5-turbo accepts text; Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) accepts text; Qwen-VL OCR accepts text and images. Qwen-VL OCR handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
No. GPT-3.5-turbo, Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) and Qwen-VL OCR are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
Qwen-VL OCR is the newest, released Oct 28, 2024. Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) came out Jan 2024; GPT-3.5-turbo came out Mar 1, 2023. Knowledge cutoff: GPT-3.5-turbo Sep 1, 2021, Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) Apr 2024, Qwen-VL OCR Apr 2024.
How do you decide the winner?
Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.
