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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Kimi K2 Thinking vs GPT-4.1 mini vs Qwen3.5 Plus

Qwen3.5 Plus comes out ahead, 66 to 60 and 58 on our weighted score, though GPT-4.1 mini is 22% cheaper per token.

  1. 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

  2. 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
  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-4.1 mini (60) and Kimi K2 Thinking (58). GPT-4.1 mini wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3.5 PlusCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.5 Plus 146.8 · Kimi K2 Thinking 146.0 · GPT-4.1 mini 135.0
  • Lowest priceGPT-4.1 miniGPT-4.1 mini $0.70 · Qwen3.5 Plus $0.90 · Kimi K2 Thinking $1.07 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGPT-4.1 miniGPT-4.1 mini 1,047,576 · Qwen3.5 Plus 1,000,000 · Kimi K2 Thinking 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsGPT-4.1 mini and Qwen3.5 PlusKimi K2 Thinking: Text · GPT-4.1 mini: Text, Images, PDFs · Qwen3.5 Plus: Text, Images, Video
  • Self-hostingKimi K2 ThinkingPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightKimi K2 ThinkingGPT-4.1 miniQwen3.5 Plus
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%735974
Price25%485752
Inputs & features15%357070
Context window10%376160
Overall100%58/10060/10066/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Kimi K2 Thinking vs GPT-4.1 mini vs Qwen3.5 Plus specifications side by side
SpecificationKimi K2 ThinkingMoonshot AIGPT-4.1 miniOpenAIQwen3.5 PlusAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)146.0135.0146.8 (best)
ECI rank#72 of 148#115 of 148#65 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions84.2%65.9%84.9% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—6.7%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics83.1%44.7%86.7% (best)
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—12.7%25.4% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$0.60$0.40 (best)$0.40 (best)
Output$2.50$1.60 (best)$2.40
Cached input—$0.10—
Blended (3:1)$1.07$0.70 (best)$0.90
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 10 providersOfficial OpenAI APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens1,047,576 tokens (best)1,000,000 tokens
Max output262,144 tokens (best)32,768 tokens65,536 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoYesYes
PDFsNoYesNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoYes
ReasoningYesNoYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoYesNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietaryProprietary
API model ID—gpt-4.1-miniqwen3.5-plus
API providers1024 (best)10
ReleasedNov 6, 2025Apr 14, 2025Feb 16, 2026
Knowledge cutoffAug 2024Apr 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.

  • Kimi K2 Thinking$11.00
  • GPT-4.1 mini$7.20
  • Qwen3.5 Plus$8.80
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Kimi K2 Thinking, GPT-4.1 mini or Qwen3.5 Plus?

Qwen3.5 Plus is the better all-round choice, scoring 66/100 against GPT-4.1 mini (60) and Kimi K2 Thinking (58). GPT-4.1 mini wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Kimi K2 Thinking, GPT-4.1 mini or Qwen3.5 Plus?

GPT-4.1 mini is cheaper at $0.40 input / $1.60 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). Qwen3.5 Plus costs $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). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.70 per million tokens for GPT-4.1 mini versus $0.90 for Qwen3.5 Plus (1.3× as much) and $1.07 for Kimi K2 Thinking (1.5× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3.5 Plus scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.5 Plus 146.8 (#65 of 148), Kimi K2 Thinking 146.0 (#72 of 148) and GPT-4.1 mini 135.0 (#115 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (144.6–148.1 vs 143.4–147.6), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3.5 Plus 84.9%, Kimi K2 Thinking 84.2%, GPT-4.1 mini 65.9%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.5 Plus 86.7%, Kimi K2 Thinking 83.1%, GPT-4.1 mini 44.7%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Kimi K2 Thinking, GPT-4.1 mini and Qwen3.5 Plus yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3.5 Plus 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 1,000,000 for Qwen3.5 Plus and 262,144 for Kimi K2 Thinking. Maximum output per response: Kimi K2 Thinking up to 262,144, GPT-4.1 mini up to 32,768, Qwen3.5 Plus up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Kimi K2 Thinking accepts text; GPT-4.1 mini accepts text, images and PDFs; Qwen3.5 Plus accepts text, images and video. GPT-4.1 mini handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Kimi K2 Thinking publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; GPT-4.1 mini and Qwen3.5 Plus is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.5 Plus is the newest, released Feb 16, 2026. Kimi K2 Thinking came out Nov 6, 2025; GPT-4.1 mini came out Apr 14, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Kimi K2 Thinking Aug 2024, GPT-4.1 mini Apr 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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