Compare / Qwen3.5-397B-A17B vs GPT-5.1
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B vs GPT-5.1
Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 20 results on 3 sources that measured both models.
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.
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or GPT-5.1? The short answer
Pick GPT-5.1 if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 24.7 against 21.4). Pick Qwen3.5-397B-A17B if cost matters more: it costs 2.7 times less per token.
- Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is cheaper: $1.29 against $3.44 per million tokens, 2.7 times less.
- GPT-5.1 scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 24.7 against 21.4.
- Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is newer: released 13 Feb 2026, against 13 Nov 2025 for GPT-5.1.
- On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Qwen3.5-397B-A17B does better for reasoning and knowledge; GPT-5.1 for agents and tool use, writing and sticking to the facts.
Head to head
Every fact side by side
| Qwen3.5-397B-A17B | GPT-5.1 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per million tokens | $0.55 in · $3.50 out | $1.25 in · $10.00 out |
| Blended (3 in : 1 out) | $1.29 | $3.44 |
| Cheapest host, blended | $0.88 (Alibaba) | $3.44 (Azure) |
| Intelligence Index | 21.4 | 24.7 |
| Spring Prompt overall | – | – |
| Output speed, tokens a second | 90 | – |
| Context window | 262,144 tokens | 400,000 tokens |
| Released | 13 Feb 2026 (newer) | 13 Nov 2025 |
| Weights | Open | Closed |
| Developer based in | China | the 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.
From our research
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.
| Measure | Qwen3.5-397B-A17B | GPT-5.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results | ||
| Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 80 · 60 of 387 measured | 1,442 | 1,456high reasoning |
| Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better 70 · 42 of 163 measured | 1,445 | 1,459high reasoning |
| Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 73 · 67 of 380 measured | 1,446 | 1,448high reasoning |
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results | ||
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 97 · 79 of 243 measured | 21.4no reasoning | 24.7high reasoning |
| GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 53 · 64 of 231 measured | 89.3% | 87.3%high reasoning |
| Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 77 · 79 of 242 measured | 29.0% | 28.5%high reasoning |
| UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results | ||
| Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 77 · 56 of 230 measured | 50.1no reasoning | 55.8high reasoning |
| Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better 134 · 226 of 230 measured | 23.0%no reasoning | 113.0%high reasoning |
| Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better 164 · 27 of 230 measured | 0.33no reasoning | 0.38low reasoning |
Show all 20 results (11 more)
| Measure | Qwen3.5-397B-A17B | GPT-5.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 4 results | ||
| Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 86 · 62 of 385 measured | 1,405 | 1,428high reasoning |
| Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 67 · 60 of 338 measured | 1,477 | 1,482high reasoning |
| Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 78 · 54 of 387 measured | 1,434 | 1,450high reasoning |
| Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 80 · 60 of 386 measured | 1,421 | 1,438high reasoning |
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 7 results | ||
| Terminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks, higher is better 61 · 58 of 130 measured | 51.3% | 52.4%high reasoning |
| τ-bench banking% of tasks, higher is better 64 · 56 of 121 measured | 13.4% | 15.9%high reasoning |
| Artificial Analysis Coding Indexindex score, higher is better 61 · 58 of 131 measured | 48.2 | 49.4high reasoning |
| IFBench% of instructions, higher is better 8 · 37 of 195 measured | 78.8% | 72.9%high reasoning |
| Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 66 · 38 of 233 measured | 77.3% | 80.0%high reasoning |
| Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks, higher is better 34 · 20 of 190 measured | 40.9% | 45.5%high reasoning |
| τ²-bench telecom% of tasks, higher is better 16 · 67 of 193 measured | 95.6% | 81.9%high reasoning |
Compare them with other models
Quick answers
Is Qwen3.5-397B-A17B better than GPT-5.1?
Pick GPT-5.1 if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 24.7 against 21.4). Pick Qwen3.5-397B-A17B if cost matters more: it costs 2.7 times less per token.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or GPT-5.1?
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B is cheaper: $1.29 against $3.44 per million tokens, 2.7 times less.
Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or GPT-5.1?
Qwen3.5-397B-A17B ranks 70 of 164 models on sale for multi-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls, against 85 for GPT-5.1.
Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or GPT-5.1?
GPT-5.1 ranks 70 of 198 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 73 for Qwen3.5-397B-A17B.
Which is better for writing, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or GPT-5.1?
GPT-5.1 ranks 53 of 188 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 69 for Qwen3.5-397B-A17B.
Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or GPT-5.1?
GPT-5.1 ranks 63 of 152 models on sale for summarising without inventing things, and factual answers, against 75 for Qwen3.5-397B-A17B.
Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3.5-397B-A17B or GPT-5.1?
GPT-5.1: 400,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3.5-397B-A17B.
Run Qwen3.5-397B-A17B and GPT-5.1 on your own prompt
Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.