ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

GPT-5.4 mini vs Kimi K2 Thinking vs Qwen3.5 Plus

Qwen3.5 Plus comes out ahead, 66 to 63 and 58 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. OpenAI

    GPT-5.4 mini

    Released Mar 17, 2026

    63/100
    • ECI148.8
    • Price$0.75 / $4.50
    • Context400K
    Full specs Remove GPT-5.4 mini

  2. Moonshot AI

    Kimi K2 Thinking

    Released Nov 6, 2025

    58/100
    • ECI146.0
    • Price$0.60 / $2.50
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Kimi K2 Thinking
  3. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.5 Plus

    Released Feb 16, 2026

    66/100
    • ECI146.8
    • Price$0.40 / $2.40
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.5 Plus
01 — Verdict

Qwen3.5 Plus is our pick

Qwen3.5 Plus is the better all-round choice, scoring 66/100 against GPT-5.4 mini (63) and Kimi K2 Thinking (58). It leads on price and context window. GPT-5.4 mini wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityGPT-5.4 miniCapabilities Index (ECI): GPT-5.4 mini 148.8 · Qwen3.5 Plus 146.8 · Kimi K2 Thinking 146.0
  • Lowest priceQwen3.5 PlusQwen3.5 Plus $0.90 · Kimi K2 Thinking $1.07 · GPT-5.4 mini $1.69 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3.5 PlusQwen3.5 Plus 1,000,000 · GPT-5.4 mini 400,000 · Kimi K2 Thinking 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.5 PlusGPT-5.4 mini: Text, Images · Kimi K2 Thinking: Text · Qwen3.5 Plus: Text, Images, Video
  • Self-hostingKimi K2 ThinkingPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGPT-5.4 miniKimi K2 ThinkingQwen3.5 Plus
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%777374
Price25%394852
Inputs & features15%703570
Context window10%443760
Overall100%63/10058/10066/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

GPT-5.4 mini vs Kimi K2 Thinking vs Qwen3.5 Plus specifications side by side
SpecificationGPT-5.4 miniOpenAIKimi K2 ThinkingMoonshot AIQwen3.5 PlusAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)148.8 (best)146.0146.8
ECI rank#56 of 148 (best)#72 of 148#65 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions86.9% (best)84.2%84.9%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics51.2%——
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics88.9% (best)83.1%86.7%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions29.4% (best)—25.4%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.75$0.60$0.40 (best)
Output$4.50$2.50$2.40 (best)
Cached input$0.075——
Blended (3:1)$1.69$1.07$0.90 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial OpenAI APIMedian of 10 providersOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window400,000 tokens262,144 tokens1,000,000 tokens (best)
Max output128,000 tokens262,144 tokens (best)65,536 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesNoYes
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoYes
ReasoningYeslow · medium · high · xhighYesYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpenProprietary
API model IDgpt-5.4-mini—qwen3.5-plus
API providers29 (best)1010
ReleasedMar 17, 2026Nov 6, 2025Feb 16, 2026
Knowledge cutoffAug 31, 2025Aug 2024Apr 2025
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-5.4 mini$16.50
  • Kimi K2 Thinking$11.00
  • Qwen3.5 Plus$8.80
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: GPT-5.4 mini, Kimi K2 Thinking or Qwen3.5 Plus?

Qwen3.5 Plus is the better all-round choice, scoring 66/100 against GPT-5.4 mini (63) and Kimi K2 Thinking (58). It leads on price and context window. GPT-5.4 mini wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, GPT-5.4 mini, Kimi K2 Thinking or Qwen3.5 Plus?

Qwen3.5 Plus is cheaper at $0.40 input / $2.40 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). Kimi K2 Thinking costs $0.60 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (median across 10 API providers); GPT-5.4 mini costs $0.75 input / $4.50 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.90 per million tokens for Qwen3.5 Plus versus $1.07 for Kimi K2 Thinking (1.2× as much) and $1.69 for GPT-5.4 mini (1.9× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

GPT-5.4 mini scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): GPT-5.4 mini 148.8 (#56 of 148), Qwen3.5 Plus 146.8 (#65 of 148) and Kimi K2 Thinking 146.0 (#72 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (147.1–150.5 vs 144.6–148.1), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — GPT-5.4 mini 86.9%, Qwen3.5 Plus 84.9%, Kimi K2 Thinking 84.2%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — GPT-5.4 mini 88.9%, Qwen3.5 Plus 86.7%, Kimi K2 Thinking 83.1%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for GPT-5.4 mini, Kimi K2 Thinking and Qwen3.5 Plus yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, GPT-5.4 mini 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?

Qwen3.5 Plus has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 400,000 for GPT-5.4 mini and 262,144 for Kimi K2 Thinking. Maximum output per response: GPT-5.4 mini up to 128,000, Kimi K2 Thinking up to 262,144, Qwen3.5 Plus up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

GPT-5.4 mini accepts text and images; Kimi K2 Thinking accepts text; Qwen3.5 Plus accepts text, images and video. Qwen3.5 Plus handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Kimi K2 Thinking publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; GPT-5.4 mini and Qwen3.5 Plus is proprietary.

Which is newer?

GPT-5.4 mini is the newest, released Mar 17, 2026. Qwen3.5 Plus came out Feb 16, 2026; Kimi K2 Thinking came out Nov 6, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: GPT-5.4 mini Aug 31, 2025, Kimi K2 Thinking Aug 2024, Qwen3.5 Plus Apr 2025.

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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