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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3.5 Flash vs GPT-5 Nano

Qwen3.5 Flash comes out ahead, 75 to 70 on our weighted score, though GPT-5 Nano is 21% cheaper per token.

  1. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.5 Flash

    Released Feb 23, 2026

    75/100
    • ECI144.0
    • Price$0.10 / $0.40
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.5 Flash

  2. 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

Qwen3.5 Flash is our pick

Qwen3.5 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 75/100 against GPT-5 Nano (70). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. GPT-5 Nano wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3.5 FlashCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.5 Flash 144.0 · GPT-5 Nano 139.4
  • Lowest priceGPT-5 NanoGPT-5 Nano $0.138 · Qwen3.5 Flash $0.175 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3.5 FlashQwen3.5 Flash 1,000,000 · GPT-5 Nano 400,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.5 FlashQwen3.5 Flash: Text, Images, Video · GPT-5 Nano: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3.5 FlashGPT-5 Nano
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%7165
Price25%8691
Inputs & features15%8070
Context window10%6044
Overall100%75/10070/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3.5 Flash vs GPT-5 Nano specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.5 FlashAlibaba (Qwen)GPT-5 NanoOpenAI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)144.0 (best)139.4
ECI rank#82 of 148 (best)#102 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions82.3% (best)69.4%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics18.3%20.0% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics84.4% (best)81.1%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions20.3% (best)11.7%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.10$0.05 (best)
Output$0.40$0.40
Cached input$0.01$0.005 (best)
Blended (3:1)$0.175$0.138 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial OpenAI API
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens (best)400,000 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens128,000 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoYesNo
ReasoningYesYesminimal · low · medium · high
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
API model IDqwen3.5-flashgpt-5-nano
API providers821 (best)
ReleasedFeb 23, 2026Aug 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.

  • Qwen3.5 Flash$1.80
  • GPT-5 Nano$1.30
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3.5 Flash or GPT-5 Nano?

Qwen3.5 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 75/100 against GPT-5 Nano (70). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. GPT-5 Nano wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.5 Flash or GPT-5 Nano?

GPT-5 Nano is cheaper at $0.05 input / $0.40 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). Qwen3.5 Flash costs $0.10 input / $0.40 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.138 per million tokens for GPT-5 Nano versus $0.175 for Qwen3.5 Flash (1.3× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3.5 Flash scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.5 Flash 144.0 (#82 of 148) and GPT-5 Nano 139.4 (#102 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (141.6–145.5 vs 134.9–141.7), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3.5 Flash 82.3%, GPT-5 Nano 69.4%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — GPT-5 Nano 20.0%, Qwen3.5 Flash 18.3%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.5 Flash 84.4%, GPT-5 Nano 81.1%; SimpleQA Verified — Qwen3.5 Flash 20.3%, GPT-5 Nano 11.7%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3.5 Flash and GPT-5 Nano yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3.5 Flash 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?

Qwen3.5 Flash has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 400,000 for GPT-5 Nano. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.5 Flash up to 65,536, GPT-5 Nano up to 128,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3.5 Flash accepts text, images and video; GPT-5 Nano accepts text and images. Qwen3.5 Flash handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

No. Qwen3.5 Flash and GPT-5 Nano are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.5 Flash is the newest, released Feb 23, 2026. GPT-5 Nano came out Aug 7, 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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