Compare / Qwen3.5-Flash vs o4-mini

Qwen3.5-Flash vs o4-mini

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 10 results on 3 sources that measured both models.

AlibabaQwen3.5-Flash $0.065 in · $0.26 out
OpenAIo4-mini Released 16 Apr 2025 · $1.10 in · $4.40 out
Qwen3.5-Flash wins 73 too close to callo4-mini wins 0

Of the 10 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-Flash or o4-mini? The short answer

They score about the same, so pick Qwen3.5-Flash: it costs 17 times less per token.

  • Qwen3.5-Flash is cheaper: $0.11 against $1.93 per million tokens, 17 times less.
  • On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Qwen3.5-Flash does better for sticking to the facts.

Head to head

$0.11
Price per million tokens, blendedlower is better
$1.93
1,000,000
Context window, tokens
200,000

Every fact side by side

Qwen3.5-Flasho4-mini
Price per million tokens$0.065 in · $0.26 out$1.10 in · $4.40 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.11$1.93
Cheapest host, blended––
Intelligence Index–16.7
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second––
Context window1,000,000 tokens200,000 tokens
Released–16 Apr 2025
WeightsClosedClosed
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 143 of 164 48 of 164
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge not measured 105 of 198
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 115 of 188 101 of 188
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 119 of 152 141 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.

MeasureQwen3.5-Flasho4-mini
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results
Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 142 · 151 of 387 measured 1,396 1,391
Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better 123 · 152 of 163 measured 1,414 1,368
Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 137 · 159 of 380 measured 1,403 1,379
SimpleQA Verified (Epoch AI) reported by SimpleQA Verified (Epoch AI) · 1 result
Correct answers% of questions, higher is better 64 · 65 of 76 measured 20.3% 19.6%low reasoning
Vectara Hallucination Leaderboard reported by Vectara Hallucination Leaderboard · 2 results
Hallucination rate · Vectara% of summaries, lower is better 62 · 95 of 104 measured 10.5% 18.6%high reasoning
Answer rate · Vectara% of documents, higher is better 31 · 59 of 104 measured 99.8% 99.2%high reasoning
Show all 10 results (4 more)
MeasureQwen3.5-Flasho4-mini
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 4 results
Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 167 · 168 of 385 measured 1,337 1,337
Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 135 · 144 of 338 measured 1,419 1,408
Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 148 · 161 of 387 measured 1,381 1,369
Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 149 · 166 of 386 measured 1,367 1,354

Quick answers

Is Qwen3.5-Flash better than o4-mini?

They score about the same, so pick Qwen3.5-Flash: it costs 17 times less per token.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.5-Flash or o4-mini?

Qwen3.5-Flash is cheaper: $0.11 against $1.93 per million tokens, 17 times less.

Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3.5-Flash or o4-mini?

o4-mini ranks 48 of 164 models on sale for multi-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls, against 143 for Qwen3.5-Flash.

Which is better for writing, Qwen3.5-Flash or o4-mini?

o4-mini ranks 101 of 188 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 115 for Qwen3.5-Flash.

Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3.5-Flash or o4-mini?

Qwen3.5-Flash ranks 119 of 152 models on sale for summarising without inventing things, and factual answers, against 141 for o4-mini.

Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3.5-Flash or o4-mini?

Qwen3.5-Flash: 1,000,000 tokens, against 200,000 for o4-mini.

Run Qwen3.5-Flash and o4-mini on your own prompt

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

Try the playgroundTalk to us