GPT-4.1 vs Qwen3 Max Thinking
| Signal | GPT-4.1 | Delta | Qwen3 Max Thinking |
|---|---|---|---|
Capabilities | 83 | +17 | |
Benchmarks | 70 | +2 | |
Pricing | 92 | -4 | |
Context window size | 96 | +10 | |
Recency | 47 | -53 | |
Output Capacity | 75 | -- | |
| Overall Result | 3 wins | of 6 | 2 wins |
Score History
67.7
current score
Qwen3 Max Thinking
right now
68.2
current score
GPT-4.1
OpenAI
Qwen3 Max Thinking
Alibaba
Qwen3 Max Thinking saves you $327.00/month
That's $3924.00/year compared to GPT-4.1 at your current usage level of 100K calls/month.
| Metric | GPT-4.1 | Qwen3 Max Thinking | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall Score | 68 | 68 | Qwen3 Max Thinking |
| Rank | #127 | #125 | Qwen3 Max Thinking |
| Quality Rank | #127 | #125 | Qwen3 Max Thinking |
| Adoption Rank | #127 | #125 | Qwen3 Max Thinking |
| Parameters | -- | -- | -- |
| Context Window | 1048K | 262K | GPT-4.1 |
| Pricing | $2.00/$8.00/M | $0.78/$3.90/M | -- |
| Signal Scores | |||
| Capabilities | 83 | 67 | GPT-4.1 |
| Benchmarks | 70 | 69 | GPT-4.1 |
| Pricing | 92 | 96 | Qwen3 Max Thinking |
| Context window size | 96 | 86 | GPT-4.1 |
| Recency | 47 | 100 | Qwen3 Max Thinking |
| Output Capacity | 75 | 75 | GPT-4.1 |
Our score (0-100) is driven by benchmark performance (90%) from Arena Elo ratings, MMLU, GPQA, HumanEval, SWE-bench, and 15+ standardized evaluations. Capabilities and context window serve as tiebreakers (10%). Learn more about our methodology.
Scores 68/100 (rank #127), placing it in the top 57% of all 290 models tracked.
Scores 68/100 (rank #125), placing it in the top 57% of all 290 models tracked.
With only a 1-point gap, these models are in the same performance tier. The practical difference in output quality is minimal - your choice should depend on pricing, latency requirements, and specific feature needs.
Choose GPT-4.1 when you need:
- Processing long documents or large codebases (1048K token context)
- Multimodal workflows that require image understanding
Choose Qwen3 Max Thinking when you need:
- High-volume production workloads where API costs must be minimized
- Step-by-step reasoning and chain-of-thought problem solving
Qwen3 Max Thinking offers 53% better value per quality point. At 1M tokens/day, you'd spend $70.20/month with Qwen3 Max Thinking vs $150.00/month with GPT-4.1 - a $79.80 monthly difference.
Both models have comparable response speeds. For most applications, the latency difference is negligible.
When latency matters most: Interactive chatbots, IDE code completion, real-time translation, and user-facing applications where response time directly impacts experience. For batch processing, background summarization, or offline analysis, latency is less critical.
Code generation & review
Based on overall model capabilities and architecture for coding tasks like generating functions, debugging, and refactoring
Customer support chatbot
Suitable for user-facing chat with competitive response times. Qwen3 Max Thinking also offers lower per-token costs for high-volume support
Long document analysis
Larger context window (1048K tokens) can process longer documents, contracts, and research papers in a single pass
Batch data extraction
Lower output pricing ($3.90/M) reduces costs when processing thousands of records daily
Creative writing & content
Higher overall composite score (68/100) correlates with better nuance, coherence, and style in long-form content
Image understanding & OCR
Supports vision input - can analyze screenshots, diagrams, photos, and scanned documents directly
GPT-4.1 and Qwen3 Max Thinking are extremely close in overall performance (only 0.5 points apart). Your best choice depends entirely on which specific strengths matter most for your use case.
By Use Case
Best for Quality
GPT-4.1
Marginally better benchmark scores; both are excellent
Best for Cost
Qwen3 Max Thinking
53% lower pricing; better value at scale
Best for Reliability
GPT-4.1
Higher uptime and faster response speeds
Best for Prototyping
GPT-4.1
Stronger community support and better developer experience
Best for Production
GPT-4.1
Wider enterprise adoption and proven at scale
by OpenAI
- Choose for Quality - Marginally better benchmark scores; both are excellent
- Choose for Reliability - Higher uptime and faster response speeds
- Choose for Prototyping - Stronger community support and better developer experience
- Choose for Production - Wider enterprise adoption and proven at scale
| Capability | GPT-4.1 | Qwen3 Max Thinking |
|---|---|---|
| Vision (Image Input)differs | ||
| Function Calling | ||
| Streaming | ||
| JSON Mode | ||
| Reasoningdiffers | ||
| Web Searchdiffers | ||
| Image Output |
GPT-4.1
OpenAI
Qwen3 Max Thinking
Alibaba
Qwen3 Max Thinking saves you $7.12/month
That's 54% cheaper than GPT-4.1 at 1,000 tokens/request and 100 requests/day.
Assumes 60% input / 40% output token ratio per request. Actual costs may vary based on your usage pattern.
| Parameter | GPT-4.1 | Qwen3 Max Thinking |
|---|---|---|
| Context Window | 1.0M | 262K |
| Max Output Tokens | 32,768 | 32,768 |
| Open Source | No | No |
| Created | Apr 14, 2025 | Feb 9, 2026 |