ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B vs GPT-5.4 mini

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B comes out ahead, 68 to 63 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.6 35B-A3B

    Released Apr 17, 2026

    68/100
    • ECI143.9
    • Price$0.248 / $1.49
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.6 35B-A3B

  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

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B is our pick

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B is the better all-round choice, scoring 68/100 against GPT-5.4 mini (63). It leads on price and inputs & features. GPT-5.4 mini wins on capability and context window. 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 · Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 143.9
  • Lowest priceQwen3.6 35B-A3BQwen3.6 35B-A3B $0.557 · GPT-5.4 mini $1.69 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGPT-5.4 miniGPT-5.4 mini 400,000 · Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.6 35B-A3BQwen3.6 35B-A3B: Text, Images, Audio, Video · GPT-5.4 mini: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingQwen3.6 35B-A3BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3.6 35B-A3BGPT-5.4 mini
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%7077
Price25%6239
Inputs & features15%9070
Context window10%3744
Overall100%68/10063/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B vs GPT-5.4 mini specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.6 35B-A3BAlibaba (Qwen)GPT-5.4 miniOpenAI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)143.9148.8 (best)
ECI rank#83 of 148#56 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions84.9%86.9% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics20.4%51.2% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics86.7%88.9% (best)
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—29.4%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.248 (best)$0.75
Output$1.49 (best)$4.50
Cached input—$0.075
Blended (3:1)$0.557 (best)$1.69
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial OpenAI API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens400,000 tokens (best)
Max output65,536 tokens128,000 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioYesNo
VideoYesNo
ReasoningYesYeslow · medium · high · xhigh
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesYes
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietary
API model IDqwen3.6-35b-a3bgpt-5.4-mini
API providers34 (best)29
ReleasedApr 17, 2026Mar 17, 2026
Knowledge cutoff—Aug 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.

  • Qwen3.6 35B-A3B$5.45
  • GPT-5.4 mini$16.50
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3.6 35B-A3B or GPT-5.4 mini?

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B is the better all-round choice, scoring 68/100 against GPT-5.4 mini (63). It leads on price and inputs & features. GPT-5.4 mini wins on capability and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B or GPT-5.4 mini?

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B is cheaper at $0.248 input / $1.49 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 $0.557 per million tokens for Qwen3.6 35B-A3B versus $1.69 for GPT-5.4 mini (3× 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 Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 143.9 (#83 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (147.1–150.5 vs 141.2–146.0), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — GPT-5.4 mini 86.9%, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 84.9%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — GPT-5.4 mini 51.2%, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 20.4%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — GPT-5.4 mini 88.9%, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 86.7%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 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?

GPT-5.4 mini has the largest context window at 400,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3.6 35B-A3B. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.6 35B-A3B up to 65,536, GPT-5.4 mini up to 128,000 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B accepts text, images, audio and video; GPT-5.4 mini accepts text and images. Qwen3.6 35B-A3B handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; GPT-5.4 mini is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B is the newest, released Apr 17, 2026. GPT-5.4 mini came out Mar 17, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: 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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