ZMIME
Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

QwQ 32B vs Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct vs GPT-4.1 mini

Too close to call on our weighted score (GPT-4.1 mini 60, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 58, QwQ 32B 53). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Alibaba (Qwen)

    QwQ 32B

    Released Mar 5, 2025

    53/100
    • ECI137.6
    • Price$0.66 / $1.00
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove QwQ 32B

  2. Meta

    Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct

    Released Apr 5, 2025

    58/100
    • ECI132.2
    • Price$0.321 / $0.91
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct

  3. 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
01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (GPT-4.1 mini 60/100, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 58/100, QwQ 32B 53/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: QwQ 32B for raw capability, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct on price and GPT-4.1 mini for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwQ 32BCapabilities Index (ECI): QwQ 32B 137.6 · GPT-4.1 mini 135.0 · Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 132.2
  • Lowest priceLlama 4 Maverick 17B InstructLlama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct $0.468 · GPT-4.1 mini $0.70 · QwQ 32B $0.745 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextGPT-4.1 miniGPT-4.1 mini 1,047,576 · Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 1,000,000 · QwQ 32B 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsGPT-4.1 miniQwQ 32B: Text · Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct: Text, Images · GPT-4.1 mini: Text, Images, PDFs
  • Self-hostingQwQ 32B and Llama 4 Maverick 17B InstructPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwQ 32BLlama 4 Maverick 17B InstructGPT-4.1 mini
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%625659
Price25%566657
Inputs & features15%355070
Context window10%246061
Overall100%53/10058/10060/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

QwQ 32B vs Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct vs GPT-4.1 mini specifications side by side
SpecificationQwQ 32BAlibaba (Qwen)Llama 4 Maverick 17B InstructMetaGPT-4.1 miniOpenAI
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)137.6 (best)132.2135.0
ECI rank#109 of 148 (best)#122 of 148#115 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions65.3%67.0% (best)65.9%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics——6.7%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics59.2% (best)20.6%44.7%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions——12.7%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.66$0.321 (best)$0.40
Output$1.00$0.91 (best)$1.60
Cached input——$0.10
Blended (3:1)$0.745$0.468 (best)$0.70
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 1 providersMedian of 6 providersOfficial OpenAI API
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens1,000,000 tokens1,047,576 tokens (best)
Max output8,192 tokens16,384 tokens32,768 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoYesYes
PDFsNoNoYes
AudioNoNoNo
VideoNoNoNo
ReasoningYesNoNo
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoYes
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenProprietary
API model ID——gpt-4.1-mini
API providers1624 (best)
ReleasedMar 5, 2025Apr 5, 2025Apr 14, 2025
Knowledge cutoffApr 2024Aug 2024Apr 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.

  • QwQ 32B$8.60
  • Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct$5.03
  • GPT-4.1 mini$7.20
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: QwQ 32B, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct or GPT-4.1 mini?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (GPT-4.1 mini 60/100, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 58/100, QwQ 32B 53/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: QwQ 32B for raw capability, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct on price and GPT-4.1 mini for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, QwQ 32B, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct or GPT-4.1 mini?

Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct is cheaper at $0.321 input / $0.91 output per million tokens (median across 6 API providers). GPT-4.1 mini costs $0.40 input / $1.60 output per million tokens (official OpenAI API price); QwQ 32B costs $0.66 input / $1.00 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.468 per million tokens for Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct versus $0.70 for GPT-4.1 mini (1.5× as much) and $0.745 for QwQ 32B (1.6× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

QwQ 32B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): QwQ 32B 137.6 (#109 of 148), GPT-4.1 mini 135.0 (#115 of 148) and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 132.2 (#122 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (133.1–141.7 vs 131.2–136.6), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 67.0%, GPT-4.1 mini 65.9%, QwQ 32B 65.3%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — QwQ 32B 59.2%, GPT-4.1 mini 44.7%, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 20.6%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for QwQ 32B, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct and GPT-4.1 mini yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, QwQ 32B 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 1,000,000 for Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct and 131,072 for QwQ 32B. Maximum output per response: QwQ 32B up to 8,192, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct up to 16,384, GPT-4.1 mini up to 32,768 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

QwQ 32B accepts text; Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct accepts text and images; GPT-4.1 mini accepts text, images and PDFs. GPT-4.1 mini handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

QwQ 32B and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; GPT-4.1 mini is proprietary.

Which is newer?

GPT-4.1 mini is the newest, released Apr 14, 2025. Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct came out Apr 5, 2025; QwQ 32B came out Mar 5, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: QwQ 32B Apr 2024, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct Aug 2024, GPT-4.1 mini Apr 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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