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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 vs GPT-5 Nano

GPT-5 Nano comes out ahead, 70 to 58 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507

    Released Jul 21, 2025

    58/100
    • ECI138.9
    • Price$0.15 / $0.75
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507
  2. Our pick

    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. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

GPT-5 Nano is our pick

GPT-5 Nano is the better all-round choice, scoring 70/100 against Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 (58). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityGPT-5 NanoCapabilities Index (ECI): GPT-5 Nano 139.4 · Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 138.9
  • Lowest priceGPT-5 NanoGPT-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 tokens
  • Widest inputsGPT-5 NanoQwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507: Text · GPT-5 Nano: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingQwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507Publishes downloadable weights (Apache 2.0)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507GPT-5 Nano
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%6465
Price25%7591
Inputs & features15%2570
Context window10%3744
Overall100%58/10070/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 vs GPT-5 Nano specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507Alibaba (Qwen)GPT-5 NanoOpenAI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)138.9139.4 (best)
ECI rank#105 of 148#102 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions—69.4%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—20.0%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics—81.1%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—11.7%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.15$0.05 (best)
Output$0.75$0.40 (best)
Cached input—$0.005
Blended (3:1)$0.30$0.138 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 11 providersOfficial OpenAI API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens400,000 tokens (best)
Max output16,384 tokens128,000 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoYesminimal · low · medium · high
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoYes
Availability
WeightsOpenApache 2.0Proprietary
API model ID—gpt-5-nano
API providers1121 (best)
ReleasedJul 21, 2025Aug 7, 2025
Knowledge cutoff—May 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.

  • Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507$3.00
  • GPT-5 Nano$1.30
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 or GPT-5 Nano?

GPT-5 Nano is the better all-round choice, scoring 70/100 against Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 (58). It leads on price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 or GPT-5 Nano?

GPT-5 Nano is cheaper at $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 $0.138 per million tokens for GPT-5 Nano versus $0.30 for Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 (2.2× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

GPT-5 Nano scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): 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 (134.9–141.7 vs 135.8–140.6), so treat the gap as small.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 and GPT-5 Nano yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, GPT-5 Nano leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Both 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. Maximum output per response: Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 up to 16,384, GPT-5 Nano up to 128,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 accepts text; GPT-5 Nano accepts text and images. GPT-5 Nano handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 publishes its weights (Apache 2.0) and can be self-hosted; GPT-5 Nano is proprietary.

Which is newer?

GPT-5 Nano is the newest, released 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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