ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

GPT-4.1 mini vs GPT-5 Nano vs Qwen3.5 9B

Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen3.5 9B 72, GPT-5 Nano 70, GPT-4.1 mini 60). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. OpenAI

    GPT-4.1 mini

    Released Apr 14, 2025

    60/100
    • ECI135.0
    • Price$0.40 / $1.60
    • Context1.05M
    Full specs Remove GPT-4.1 mini

  2. OpenAI

    GPT-5 Nano

    Released Aug 7, 2025

    70/100
    • ECI139.4
    • Price$0.05 / $0.40
    • Context400K
    Full specs Remove GPT-5 Nano

  3. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.5 9B

    Released Feb 23, 2026

    72/100
    • ECI139.5
    • Price$0.10 / $0.15
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.5 9B
01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Qwen3.5 9B 72/100, GPT-5 Nano 70/100, GPT-4.1 mini 60/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.5 9B for raw capability and GPT-4.1 mini for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3.5 9BCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.5 9B 139.5 · GPT-5 Nano 139.4 · GPT-4.1 mini 135.0
  • Lowest priceQwen3.5 9BQwen3.5 9B $0.113 · GPT-5 Nano $0.138 · GPT-4.1 mini $0.70 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGPT-4.1 miniGPT-4.1 mini 1,047,576 · GPT-5 Nano 400,000 · Qwen3.5 9B 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsGPT-4.1 mini and Qwen3.5 9BGPT-4.1 mini: Text, Images, PDFs · GPT-5 Nano: Text, Images · Qwen3.5 9B: Text, Images, Video
  • Self-hostingQwen3.5 9BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGPT-4.1 miniGPT-5 NanoQwen3.5 9B
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%596565
Price25%579195
Inputs & features15%707080
Context window10%614437
Overall100%60/10070/10072/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

GPT-4.1 mini vs GPT-5 Nano vs Qwen3.5 9B specifications side by side
SpecificationGPT-4.1 miniOpenAIGPT-5 NanoOpenAIQwen3.5 9BAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)135.0139.4139.5 (best)
ECI rank#115 of 148#102 of 148#101 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions65.9%69.4%79.0% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics6.7%20.0% (best)—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics44.7%81.1% (best)61.7%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions12.7% (best)11.7%—
Price per million tokens
Input$0.40$0.05 (best)$0.10
Output$1.60$0.40$0.15 (best)
Cached input$0.10$0.005 (best)—
Blended (3:1)$0.70$0.138$0.113 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial OpenAI APIOfficial OpenAI APIMedian of 14 providers
Limits
Context window1,047,576 tokens (best)400,000 tokens262,144 tokens
Max output32,768 tokens128,000 tokens (best)65,536 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesYes
PDFsYesNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoYes
ReasoningNoYesminimal · low · medium · highYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesYesYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietaryOpen
API model IDgpt-4.1-minigpt-5-nano—
API providers24 (best)2115
ReleasedApr 14, 2025Aug 7, 2025Feb 23, 2026
Knowledge cutoffApr 2024May 30, 2024—
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • GPT-4.1 mini$7.20
  • GPT-5 Nano$1.30
  • Qwen3.5 9B$1.30
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: GPT-4.1 mini, GPT-5 Nano or Qwen3.5 9B?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Qwen3.5 9B 72/100, GPT-5 Nano 70/100, GPT-4.1 mini 60/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.5 9B for raw capability and GPT-4.1 mini for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, GPT-4.1 mini, GPT-5 Nano or Qwen3.5 9B?

Qwen3.5 9B is cheaper at $0.10 input / $0.15 output per million tokens (median across 14 API providers). GPT-5 Nano costs $0.05 input / $0.40 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price); GPT-4.1 mini costs $0.40 input / $1.60 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.113 per million tokens for Qwen3.5 9B versus $0.138 for GPT-5 Nano (1.2× as much) and $0.70 for GPT-4.1 mini (6.2× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3.5 9B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.5 9B 139.5 (#101 of 148), GPT-5 Nano 139.4 (#102 of 148) and GPT-4.1 mini 135.0 (#115 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (136.5–141.3 vs 134.9–141.7), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3.5 9B 79.0%, GPT-5 Nano 69.4%, GPT-4.1 mini 65.9%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — GPT-5 Nano 81.1%, Qwen3.5 9B 61.7%, GPT-4.1 mini 44.7%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for GPT-4.1 mini, GPT-5 Nano and Qwen3.5 9B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3.5 9B leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

GPT-4.1 mini has the largest context window at 1,047,576 tokens, against 400,000 for GPT-5 Nano and 262,144 for Qwen3.5 9B. Maximum output per response: GPT-4.1 mini up to 32,768, GPT-5 Nano up to 128,000, Qwen3.5 9B up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

GPT-4.1 mini accepts text, images and PDFs; GPT-5 Nano accepts text and images; Qwen3.5 9B accepts text, images and video. GPT-4.1 mini handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3.5 9B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; GPT-4.1 mini and GPT-5 Nano is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.5 9B is the newest, released Feb 23, 2026. GPT-5 Nano came out Aug 7, 2025; GPT-4.1 mini came out Apr 14, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: GPT-4.1 mini Apr 2024, GPT-5 Nano May 30, 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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