Qwen3 Coder Plus vs GPT-5 Chat
Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen3 Coder Plus 37, GPT-5 Chat 34). The right pick depends on what you value most.
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 Coder Plus
37/100- ECI—
- Price$1.00 / $5.00
- Context1.05M
OpenAIGPT-5 Chat
34/100- ECI—
- Price$1.25 / $10.00
- Context400K
Add a model
Make it a three-way comparison.
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Qwen3 Coder Plus 37/100, GPT-5 Chat 34/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3 Coder Plus on price and Qwen3 Coder Plus for long inputs. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
- CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
- Lowest priceQwen3 Coder PlusQwen3 Coder Plus $2.00 · GPT-5 Chat $3.44 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen3 Coder PlusQwen3 Coder Plus 1,048,576 · GPT-5 Chat 400,000 tokens
- Widest inputsGPT-5 ChatQwen3 Coder Plus: Text · GPT-5 Chat: Text, Images
- Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | Qwen3 Coder Plus | GPT-5 Chat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 36 | 24 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 25 | 45 |
| Context window | 20% | 61 | 44 |
| Overall | 100% | 37/100 | 34/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Qwen3 Coder PlusAlibaba (Qwen) | GPT-5 ChatOpenAI |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | ||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | ||
| Input | $1.00 (best) | $1.25 |
| Output | $5.00 (best) | $10.00 |
| Cached input | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $2.00 (best) | $3.44 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Alibaba API | Median of 2 providers |
| Limits | ||
| Context window | 1,048,576 tokens (best) | 400,000 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens | 128,000 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | ||
| Text | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No |
| Audio | No | No |
| Video | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | No |
| Structured output | No | Yes |
| Availability | ||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | qwen3-coder-plus | — |
| API providers | 11 (best) | 2 |
| Released | Jul 23, 2025 | Aug 7, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Apr 2025 | Sep 30, 2024 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Qwen3 Coder Plus$20.00
- GPT-5 Chat$32.50
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Qwen3 Coder Plus or GPT-5 Chat?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Qwen3 Coder Plus 37/100, GPT-5 Chat 34/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Qwen3 Coder Plus on price and Qwen3 Coder Plus for long inputs. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3 Coder Plus or GPT-5 Chat?
Qwen3 Coder Plus is cheaper at $1.00 input / $5.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). GPT-5 Chat costs $1.25 input / $10.00 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $2.00 per million tokens for Qwen3 Coder Plus versus $3.44 for GPT-5 Chat (1.7× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. Qwen3 Coder Plus has not been scored yet and GPT-5 Chat has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 Coder Plus and GPT-5 Chat yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Note that GPT-5 Chat does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3 Coder Plus has the largest context window at 1,048,576 tokens, against 400,000 for GPT-5 Chat. Maximum output per response: Qwen3 Coder Plus up to 65,536, GPT-5 Chat up to 128,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Qwen3 Coder Plus accepts text; GPT-5 Chat accepts text and images. GPT-5 Chat handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
No. Qwen3 Coder Plus and GPT-5 Chat are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
GPT-5 Chat is the newest, released Aug 7, 2025. Qwen3 Coder Plus came out Jul 23, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen3 Coder Plus Apr 2025, GPT-5 Chat Sep 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.
