Compare / Qwen3-32B vs GPT-5 nano

Qwen3-32B vs GPT-5 nano

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 23 results on 4 sources that measured both models.

AlibabaQwen3-32B Released 28 Apr 2025 · $0.14 in · $0.40 out
OpenAIGPT-5 nano Released 7 Aug 2025 · $0.050 in · $0.40 out
Qwen3-32B wins 66 too close to callGPT-5 nano wins 11

Of the 23 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.

Qwen3-32B or GPT-5 nano? The short answer

Pick GPT-5 nano: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 13.0 against 8.6) and costs less.

  • GPT-5 nano is cheaper: $0.14 against $0.21 per million tokens, 33% less.
  • GPT-5 nano scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 13.0 against 8.6.
  • GPT-5 nano is newer: released 7 Aug 2025, against 28 Apr 2025 for Qwen3-32B.
  • On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Qwen3-32B does better for sticking to the facts; GPT-5 nano for agents and tool use and reasoning and knowledge.

Head to head

8.6
Intelligence Index
13.0
$0.21
Price per million tokens, blendedlower is better
$0.14
131,072
Context window, tokens
400,000

Every fact side by side

Qwen3-32BGPT-5 nano
Price per million tokens$0.14 in · $0.40 out$0.050 in · $0.40 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.21$0.14
Cheapest host, blended$0.13 (DeepInfra, FP8)$0.14 (Azure)
Intelligence Index8.613.0
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second––
Context window131,072 tokens400,000 tokens
Released28 Apr 20257 Aug 2025 (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.

Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 113 of 164 53 of 164
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 148 of 198 134 of 198
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 139 of 188 151 of 188
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 22 of 152 125 of 152

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.

MeasureQwen3-32BGPT-5 nano
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results
Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 195 · 207 of 387 measured 1,347 1,338high reasoning
Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 203 · 204 of 380 measured 1,340 1,339high reasoning
Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 205 · 268 of 385 measured 1,304 1,247high reasoning
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 188 · 144 of 243 measured 8.6thinking reasoning 13.0high reasoning
GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 167 · 162 of 231 measured 66.8%thinking reasoning 67.6%high reasoning
Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 168 · 160 of 242 measured 7.4%thinking reasoning 9.5%high reasoning
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4 reported by Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4 · 3 results
Overall accuracy · BFCL% correct, higher is better 24 · 21 of 81 measured 48.7%bfcl fc 51.5%bfcl fc
Irrelevance detection · BFCL% correct, higher is better 37 · 14 of 81 measured 82.4%bfcl prompt 89.1%bfcl fc
Memory · BFCL% correct, higher is better 21 · 24 of 81 measured 26.7%bfcl fc 24.7%bfcl fc
Vectara Hallucination Leaderboard reported by Vectara Hallucination Leaderboard · 2 results
Hallucination rate · Vectara% of summaries, lower is better 24 · 62 of 104 measured 5.9% 10.5%
Answer rate · Vectara% of documents, higher is better 17 · 1 of 104 measured 99.9% 100.0%
Show all 23 results (12 more)
MeasureQwen3-32BGPT-5 nano
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results
Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 159 · 191 of 338 measured 1,398 1,354high reasoning
Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 198 · 200 of 387 measured 1,331 1,327high reasoning
Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 217 · 247 of 386 measured 1,308 1,289high reasoning
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 4 results
IFBench% of instructions, higher is better 155 · 64 of 195 measured 36.3%thinking reasoning 67.6%high reasoning
Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 222 · 162 of 233 measured 0.0%no reasoning 45.0%high reasoning
Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks, higher is better 169 · 100 of 190 measured 3.0%thinking reasoning 17.4%medium reasoning
τ²-bench telecom% of tasks, higher is better 135 · 119 of 193 measured 29.8%thinking reasoning 36.6%high reasoning
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4 reported by Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4 · 5 results
Multi-turn tasks · BFCL% correct, higher is better 17 · 32 of 81 measured 47.9%bfcl fc 34.5%bfcl fc
Relevance detection · BFCL% correct, higher is better 8 · 8 of 81 measured 93.8%bfcl fc 93.8%bfcl prompt
Single-turn calls (curated) · BFCL% correct, higher is better 3 · 61 of 81 measured 90.3%bfcl prompt 80.8%bfcl prompt
Single-turn calls (user-contributed) · BFCL% correct, higher is better 3 · 45 of 81 measured 82.0%bfcl fc 70.7%bfcl prompt
Web search · BFCL% correct, higher is better 28 · 13 of 81 measured 26.0%bfcl prompt 72.5%bfcl fc

Quick answers

Is Qwen3-32B better than GPT-5 nano?

Pick GPT-5 nano: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 13.0 against 8.6) and costs less.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3-32B or GPT-5 nano?

GPT-5 nano is cheaper: $0.14 against $0.21 per million tokens, 33% less.

Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3-32B or GPT-5 nano?

GPT-5 nano ranks 53 of 164 models on sale for multi-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls, against 113 for Qwen3-32B.

Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Qwen3-32B or GPT-5 nano?

GPT-5 nano ranks 134 of 198 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 148 for Qwen3-32B.

Which is better for writing, Qwen3-32B or GPT-5 nano?

Qwen3-32B ranks 139 of 188 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 151 for GPT-5 nano.

Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3-32B or GPT-5 nano?

Qwen3-32B ranks 22 of 152 models on sale for summarising without inventing things, and factual answers, against 125 for GPT-5 nano.

Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3-32B or GPT-5 nano?

GPT-5 nano: 400,000 tokens, against 131,072 for Qwen3-32B.

Run Qwen3-32B and GPT-5 nano on your own prompt

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