GPT-5 Nano vs Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 vs Qwen3.5 9B
Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen3.5 9B 72, GPT-5 Nano 70, Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 58). The right pick depends on what you value most.
OpenAIGPT-5 Nano
70/100- ECI139.4
- Price$0.05 / $0.40
- Context400K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507
58/100- ECI138.9
- Price$0.15 / $0.75
- Context262K
- Alibaba (Qwen)
Qwen3.5 9B
72/100- ECI139.5
- Price$0.10 / $0.15
- Context262K
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, Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 58/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.5 9B for raw capability and GPT-5 Nano 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 · Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 138.9
- Lowest priceQwen3.5 9BQwen3.5 9B $0.113 · GPT-5 Nano $0.138 · Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 $0.30 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGPT-5 NanoGPT-5 Nano 400,000 · Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 262,144 · Qwen3.5 9B 262,144 tokens
- Widest inputsQwen3.5 9BGPT-5 Nano: Text, Images · Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507: Text · Qwen3.5 9B: Text, Images, Video
- Self-hostingQwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 and Qwen3.5 9BPublishes downloadable weights (Apache 2.0)
| Measure | Weight | GPT-5 Nano | Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 | Qwen3.5 9B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 65 | 64 | 65 |
| Price | 25% | 91 | 75 | 95 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 70 | 25 | 80 |
| Context window | 10% | 44 | 37 | 37 |
| Overall | 100% | 70/100 | 58/100 | 72/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | GPT-5 NanoOpenAI | Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507Alibaba (Qwen) | Qwen3.5 9BAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 139.4 | 138.9 | 139.5 (best) |
| ECI rank | #102 of 148 | #105 of 148 | #101 of 148 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 69.4% | — | 79.0% (best) |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 20.0% | — | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 81.1% (best) | — | 61.7% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 11.7% | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.05 (best) | $0.15 | $0.10 |
| Output | $0.40 | $0.75 | $0.15 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.005 | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.138 | $0.30 | $0.113 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official OpenAI API | Median of 11 providers | Median of 14 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 400,000 tokens (best) | 262,144 tokens | 262,144 tokens |
| Max output | 128,000 tokens (best) | 16,384 tokens | 65,536 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | No | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yesminimal · low · medium · high | No | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | No | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | OpenApache 2.0 | Open |
| API model ID | gpt-5-nano | — | — |
| API providers | 21 (best) | 11 | 15 |
| Released | Aug 7, 2025 | Jul 21, 2025 | Feb 23, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | May 30, 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-5 Nano$1.30
- Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507$3.00
- Qwen3.5 9B$1.30
Which should you choose?
Which is better: GPT-5 Nano, Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 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, Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 58/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3.5 9B for raw capability and GPT-5 Nano for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, GPT-5 Nano, Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 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); Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 costs $0.15 input / $0.75 output per million tokens (median across 11 API providers). 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 $0.30 for Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 (2.7× 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 Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 138.9 (#105 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.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for GPT-5 Nano, Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 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-5 Nano has the largest context window at 400,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 and 262,144 for Qwen3.5 9B. Maximum output per response: GPT-5 Nano up to 128,000, Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 up to 16,384, Qwen3.5 9B up to 65,536 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
GPT-5 Nano accepts text and images; Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 accepts text; Qwen3.5 9B accepts text, images and video. Qwen3.5 9B handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 and Qwen3.5 9B publishes its weights (Apache 2.0) and can be self-hosted; 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; Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 came out Jul 21, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: 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.
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