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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3.5 Plus vs GPT-5.4 mini

Qwen3.5 Plus comes out ahead, 66 to 63 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. 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

  2. OpenAI

    GPT-5.4 mini

    Released Mar 17, 2026

    63/100
    • ECI148.8
    • Price$0.75 / $4.50
    • Context400K
    Full specs Remove GPT-5.4 mini

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Qwen3.5 Plus is our pick

Qwen3.5 Plus is the better all-round choice, scoring 66/100 against GPT-5.4 mini (63). It leads on price and context window. GPT-5.4 mini wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityGPT-5.4 miniCapabilities Index (ECI): GPT-5.4 mini 148.8 · Qwen3.5 Plus 146.8
  • Lowest priceQwen3.5 PlusQwen3.5 Plus $0.90 · GPT-5.4 mini $1.69 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3.5 PlusQwen3.5 Plus 1,000,000 · GPT-5.4 mini 400,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.5 PlusQwen3.5 Plus: Text, Images, Video · GPT-5.4 mini: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3.5 PlusGPT-5.4 mini
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%7477
Price25%5239
Inputs & features15%7070
Context window10%6044
Overall100%66/10063/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3.5 Plus vs GPT-5.4 mini specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.5 PlusAlibaba (Qwen)GPT-5.4 miniOpenAI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)146.8148.8 (best)
ECI rank#65 of 148#56 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions84.9%86.9% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—51.2%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics86.7%88.9% (best)
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions25.4%29.4% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$0.40 (best)$0.75
Output$2.40 (best)$4.50
Cached input—$0.075
Blended (3:1)$0.90 (best)$1.69
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
ReasoningYesYeslow · medium · high · xhigh
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoYes
Availability
WeightsProprietaryProprietary
API model IDqwen3.5-plusgpt-5.4-mini
API providers1029 (best)
ReleasedFeb 16, 2026Mar 17, 2026
Knowledge cutoffApr 2025Aug 31, 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.

  • Qwen3.5 Plus$8.80
  • GPT-5.4 mini$16.50
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3.5 Plus or GPT-5.4 mini?

Qwen3.5 Plus is the better all-round choice, scoring 66/100 against GPT-5.4 mini (63). It leads on price and context window. GPT-5.4 mini wins on capability. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.5 Plus or GPT-5.4 mini?

Qwen3.5 Plus is cheaper at $0.40 input / $2.40 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). GPT-5.4 mini costs $0.75 input / $4.50 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.90 per million tokens for Qwen3.5 Plus versus $1.69 for GPT-5.4 mini (1.9× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

GPT-5.4 mini scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): GPT-5.4 mini 148.8 (#56 of 148) and Qwen3.5 Plus 146.8 (#65 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (147.1–150.5 vs 144.6–148.1), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — GPT-5.4 mini 86.9%, Qwen3.5 Plus 84.9%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — GPT-5.4 mini 88.9%, Qwen3.5 Plus 86.7%; SimpleQA Verified — GPT-5.4 mini 29.4%, Qwen3.5 Plus 25.4%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3.5 Plus and GPT-5.4 mini yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, GPT-5.4 mini 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 Plus has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 400,000 for GPT-5.4 mini. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.5 Plus up to 65,536, GPT-5.4 mini up to 128,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3.5 Plus accepts text, images and video; GPT-5.4 mini accepts text and images. Qwen3.5 Plus handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

No. Qwen3.5 Plus and GPT-5.4 mini are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.

Which is newer?

GPT-5.4 mini is the newest, released Mar 17, 2026. Qwen3.5 Plus came out Feb 16, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3.5 Plus Apr 2025, GPT-5.4 mini Aug 31, 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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