Compare / Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 vs GPT-6 Astra

Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 vs GPT-6 Astra

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 20 results on 5 sources that measured both models.

AlibabaQwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 Released 25 Jul 2025 · $0.30 in · $3.00 out
OpenAIGPT-6 Astra Released 3 Sep 2026 · $10.00 in · $50.00 out
Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 wins 0GPT-6 Astra wins 20

Of the 20 results both models have, the better value on each. Results whose reported ranges overlap are too close to call.

Results as of 9 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-09-dd620e778ac5). See also Alibaba vs OpenAI, every model from both labs.

Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 or GPT-6 Astra? The short answer

Pick GPT-6 Astra if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 52.7 against 12.7). Pick Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 if cost matters more: it costs 21 times less per token.

  • Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 is cheaper: $0.97 against $20.00 per million tokens, 21 times less.
  • GPT-6 Astra scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 52.7 against 12.7.
  • GPT-6 Astra is newer: released 3 Sep 2026, against 25 Jul 2025 for Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507.
  • On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: GPT-6 Astra does better for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge, writing and sticking to the facts.

Head to head

12.7
Intelligence Index
52.7
$0.97
Price per million tokens, blendedlower is better
$20.00
131,072
Context window, tokens
1,050,000

Every fact side by side

Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507GPT-6 Astra
Price per million tokens$0.30 in · $3.00 out$10.00 in · $50.00 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.97$20.00
Cheapest host, blended$0.75 (Alibaba)$20.00 (Azure)
Cached input, per million–$1.00 cached input
Intelligence Index12.752.7
Spring Prompt overall–79
Output speed, tokens a second–52
Context window131,072 tokens1,050,000 tokens
Released25 Jul 20253 Sep 2026 (newer)
WeightsOpenClosed
Developer based inChinathe US

Prices are the developer's list price where we have read it, otherwise the typical host on OpenRouter; see every model's price. Intelligence and speed from Artificial Analysis.

Which is better for what

Each model's rank among the models on sale today, for each kind of work, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. Further right is better; the better rank is in green.

Product listingsTurning a sparse product feed and photos into listings that can go live not measured 1 of 20
Decks from an analysisTurning a finished analysis into a deck you could present as it is not measured 1 of 19
Marketing planningPlanning a year of ad spend without overspending not measured 1 of 19
Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 138 of 164 4 of 164
Professional workReal tasks from banking, consulting and law, business documents and freelance projects not measured 5 of 51
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 117 of 198 3 of 198
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 122 of 188 19 of 188
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 92 of 152 24 of 152
Speed under pressureGood decisions against a real clock (fast chess) not measured 15 of 23

Every shared result

Each model's best result on every measure both have, grouped by benchmark, with the setting that produced it. Under each measure, every model that benchmark has measured is a grey tick, best to the right, so you can see where the two sit in the field. The headline measures of each benchmark come first; the rest are under "Show all". Green marks the better value; where a source reports ranges that overlap, neither is marked.

MeasureQwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507GPT-6 Astra
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results
Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 139 · 26 of 387 measured 1,400 1,477max reasoning
Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 133 · 29 of 380 measured 1,404 1,473max reasoning
Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 133 · 32 of 385 measured 1,371 1,449max reasoning
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 147 · 4 of 243 measured 12.7 52.7max reasoning
GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 114 · 1 of 231 measured 79.0% 96.3%xhigh reasoning
Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 122 · 7 of 242 measured 15.9% 54.7%max reasoning
SimpleQA Verified (Epoch AI) reported by SimpleQA Verified (Epoch AI) · 1 result
Correct answers% of questions, higher is better 44 · 1 of 76 measured 40.4% 75.6%max reasoning
UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results
Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 139 · 13 of 230 measured 32.4 68.9high reasoning
Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better 166 · 1 of 230 measured 30.0% 0.0%high reasoning
Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better 194 · 35 of 230 measured 0.31 0.38medium reasoning
Vending-Bench 2 reported by Vending-Bench 2 · 1 result
Money after a yearUS dollars, higher is better 55 · 1 of 58 measured $-11.34 $15,515
Show all 20 results (9 more)
MeasureQwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507GPT-6 Astra
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results
Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 85 · 17 of 338 measured 1,466 1,517max reasoning
Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 142 · 24 of 387 measured 1,385 1,474max reasoning
Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 139 · 24 of 386 measured 1,377 1,465max reasoning
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 6 results
Terminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks, higher is better 101 · 2 of 130 measured 12.0% 89.9%high reasoning
Terminal-Bench 4.0% of tasks, higher is better 66 · 2 of 112 measured 0.0% 59.6%xhigh reasoning
τ-bench banking% of tasks, higher is better 87 · 15 of 121 measured 7.8% 43.1%xhigh reasoning
Artificial Analysis Coding Indexindex score, higher is better 98 · 4 of 131 measured 22.1 77.1high reasoning
Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 99 · 33 of 233 measured 72.0% 80.7%max reasoning
SciCode% of problems, higher is better 74 · 18 of 113 measured 41.4% 56.5%max reasoning

Quick answers

Is Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 better than GPT-6 Astra?

Pick GPT-6 Astra if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 52.7 against 12.7). Pick Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 if cost matters more: it costs 21 times less per token.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 or GPT-6 Astra?

Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 is cheaper: $0.97 against $20.00 per million tokens, 21 times less.

Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 or GPT-6 Astra?

GPT-6 Astra ranks 4 of 164 models on sale for multi-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls, against 138 for Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507.

Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 or GPT-6 Astra?

GPT-6 Astra ranks 3 of 198 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 117 for Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507.

Which is better for writing, Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 or GPT-6 Astra?

GPT-6 Astra ranks 19 of 188 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 122 for Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507.

Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 or GPT-6 Astra?

GPT-6 Astra ranks 24 of 152 models on sale for summarising without inventing things, and factual answers, against 92 for Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507.

Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 or GPT-6 Astra?

GPT-6 Astra: 1,050,000 tokens, against 131,072 for Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507.

Run Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 and GPT-6 Astra on your own prompt

Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.