QwQ Plus vs GPT-4.1 mini vs Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct
Too close to call on our weighted score (GPT-4.1 mini 64, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 63, QwQ Plus 52). The right pick depends on what you value most.
Alibaba (Qwen)QwQ Plus
52/100- ECI—
- Price$0.80 / $2.40
- Context131K
OpenAIGPT-4.1 mini
64/100- ECI135.0
- Price$0.40 / $1.60
- Context1.05M
MetaLlama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct
63/100- ECI132.2
- Price$0.321 / $0.91
- Context1M
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (GPT-4.1 mini 64/100, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 63/100, QwQ Plus 52/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct for raw capability and GPT-4.1 mini for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond), because QwQ Plus has no Capabilities Index score yet.
- CapabilityLlama 4 Maverick 17B InstructShared benchmarks: Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 67.0% · GPT-4.1 mini 65.9% · QwQ Plus 65.4%
- Lowest priceLlama 4 Maverick 17B InstructLlama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct $0.468 · GPT-4.1 mini $0.70 · QwQ Plus $1.20 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 Plus 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsGPT-4.1 miniQwQ Plus: Text · GPT-4.1 mini: Text, Images, PDFs · Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct: Text, Images
- Self-hostingLlama 4 Maverick 17B InstructPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | QwQ Plus | GPT-4.1 mini | Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityShared benchmarks | 50% | 65 | 66 | 67 |
| Price | 25% | 46 | 57 | 66 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 35 | 70 | 50 |
| Context window | 10% | 24 | 61 | 60 |
| Overall | 100% | 52/100 | 64/100 | 63/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | QwQ PlusAlibaba (Qwen) | GPT-4.1 miniOpenAI | Llama 4 Maverick 17B InstructMeta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | 135.0 (best) | 132.2 |
| ECI rank | — | #115 of 148 (best) | #122 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 65.4% | 65.9% | 67.0% (best) |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | — | 6.7% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | — | 44.7% (best) | 20.6% |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | — | 12.7% | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.80 | $0.40 | $0.321 (best) |
| Output | $2.40 | $1.60 | $0.91 (best) |
| Cached input | — | $0.10 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $1.20 | $0.70 | $0.468 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Alibaba API | Official OpenAI API | Median of 6 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 131,072 tokens | 1,047,576 tokens (best) | 1,000,000 tokens |
| Max output | 8,192 tokens | 32,768 tokens (best) | 16,384 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | Yes | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | No | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | Yes | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Open |
| API model ID | qwq-plus | gpt-4.1-mini | — |
| API providers | 2 | 24 (best) | 6 |
| Released | Mar 5, 2025 | Apr 14, 2025 | Apr 5, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Apr 2024 | Apr 2024 | Aug 2024 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- QwQ Plus$12.80
- GPT-4.1 mini$7.20
- Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct$5.03
Which should you choose?
Which is better: QwQ Plus, GPT-4.1 mini or Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (GPT-4.1 mini 64/100, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 63/100, QwQ Plus 52/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct for raw capability and GPT-4.1 mini for long inputs. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%. Capability uses the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond), because QwQ Plus has no Capabilities Index score yet.
Which is cheaper, QwQ Plus, GPT-4.1 mini or Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct?
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 Plus costs $0.80 input / $2.40 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). 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 $1.20 for QwQ Plus (2.6× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Not every model here has a Capabilities Index score, so we compare the average of shared benchmarks (GPQA Diamond): Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 67.0%, GPT-4.1 mini 65.9% and QwQ Plus 65.4%. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 67.0%, GPT-4.1 mini 65.9%, QwQ Plus 65.4%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for QwQ Plus, GPT-4.1 mini and Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct 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 Plus. Maximum output per response: QwQ Plus up to 8,192, GPT-4.1 mini up to 32,768, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct up to 16,384 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
QwQ Plus accepts text; GPT-4.1 mini accepts text, images and PDFs; Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct accepts text and images. GPT-4.1 mini handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; QwQ Plus and 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 Plus came out Mar 5, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: QwQ Plus Apr 2024, GPT-4.1 mini Apr 2024, Llama 4 Maverick 17B Instruct Aug 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.
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