ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

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

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. 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

  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. OpenAI

    GPT-5 Nano

    Released Aug 7, 2025

    70/100
    • ECI139.4
    • Price$0.05 / $0.40
    • Context400K
    Full specs Remove GPT-5 Nano
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 inputsQwen3.5 9B and GPT-4.1 miniQwen3.5 9B: Text, Images, Video · GPT-4.1 mini: Text, Images, PDFs · GPT-5 Nano: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingQwen3.5 9BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3.5 9BGPT-4.1 miniGPT-5 Nano
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%655965
Price25%955791
Inputs & features15%807070
Context window10%376144
Overall100%72/10060/10070/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3.5 9B vs GPT-4.1 mini vs GPT-5 Nano specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.5 9BAlibaba (Qwen)GPT-4.1 miniOpenAIGPT-5 NanoOpenAI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)139.5 (best)135.0139.4
ECI rank#101 of 148 (best)#115 of 148#102 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions79.0% (best)65.9%69.4%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—6.7%20.0% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics61.7%44.7%81.1% (best)
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—12.7% (best)11.7%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.10$0.40$0.05 (best)
Output$0.15 (best)$1.60$0.40
Cached input—$0.10$0.005 (best)
Blended (3:1)$0.113 (best)$0.70$0.138
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 14 providersOfficial OpenAI APIOfficial OpenAI API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens1,047,576 tokens (best)400,000 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens32,768 tokens128,000 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesYesYes
PDFsNoYesNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoYesNoNo
ReasoningYesNoYesminimal · low · medium · high
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputYesYesYes
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietaryProprietary
API model ID—gpt-4.1-minigpt-5-nano
API providers1524 (best)21
ReleasedFeb 23, 2026Apr 14, 2025Aug 7, 2025
Knowledge cutoff—Apr 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.

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

Which should you choose?

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

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

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 Qwen3.5 9B, GPT-4.1 mini and GPT-5 Nano 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: Qwen3.5 9B up to 65,536, GPT-4.1 mini up to 32,768, GPT-5 Nano up to 128,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3.5 9B accepts text, images and video; GPT-4.1 mini accepts text, images and PDFs; GPT-5 Nano accepts text and images. Qwen3.5 9B 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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