Compare / Qwen3-8B vs GPT-4.1
Qwen3-8B vs GPT-4.1
Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 20 results on 4 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.
Qwen3-8B or GPT-4.1? The short answer
Pick GPT-4.1 if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 12.7 against 7.3). Pick Qwen3-8B if cost matters more: it costs 17 times less per token.
- Qwen3-8B is cheaper: $0.20 against $3.50 per million tokens, 17 times less.
- GPT-4.1 scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 12.7 against 7.3.
- Qwen3-8B is newer: released 28 Apr 2025, against 14 Apr 2025 for GPT-4.1.
- On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Qwen3-8B does better for sticking to the facts; GPT-4.1 for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge and writing.
Head to head
Every fact side by side
| Qwen3-8B | GPT-4.1 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per million tokens | $0.12 in · $0.46 out | $2.00 in · $8.00 out |
| Blended (3 in : 1 out) | $0.20 | $3.50 |
| Cheapest host, blended | – | $3.50 (Azure) |
| Intelligence Index | 7.3 | 12.7 |
| Spring Prompt overall | – | – |
| Output speed, tokens a second | – | – |
| Context window | 131,072 tokens | 1,047,576 tokens |
| Released | 28 Apr 2025 (newer) | 14 Apr 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.
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 | Qwen3-8B | GPT-4.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results | ||
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 211 · 147 of 243 measured | 7.3thinking reasoning | 12.7 |
| GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 183 · 169 of 231 measured | 58.9%thinking reasoning | 66.6% |
| Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 220 · 213 of 242 measured | 3.9%thinking reasoning | 4.2% |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4 reported by Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4 · 3 results | ||
| Overall accuracy · BFCL% correct, higher is better 30 · 17 of 81 measured | 42.6%bfcl fc | 54.0%bfcl fc |
| Irrelevance detection · BFCL% correct, higher is better 38 · 24 of 81 measured | 82.3%bfcl prompt | 86.5%bfcl fc |
| Memory · BFCL% correct, higher is better 40 · 26 of 81 measured | 14.6%bfcl fc | 23.9%bfcl fc |
| UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results | ||
| Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 162 · 19 of 230 measured | 28.0no reasoning | 67.5 |
| Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better 83 · 17 of 230 measured | 17.0%no reasoning | 6.0% |
| Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better 60 · 159 of 230 measured | 0.36no reasoning | 0.33 |
| Vectara Hallucination Leaderboard reported by Vectara Hallucination Leaderboard · 2 results | ||
| Hallucination rate · Vectara% of summaries, lower is better 9 · 21 of 104 measured | 4.8% | 5.6% |
| Answer rate · Vectara% of documents, higher is better 17 · 17 of 104 measured | 99.9% | 99.9% |
Show all 20 results (9 more)
| Measure | Qwen3-8B | GPT-4.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 4 results | ||
| IFBench% of instructions, higher is better 165 · 122 of 195 measured | 33.5%thinking reasoning | 43.0% |
| Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 222 · 118 of 233 measured | 0.0%no reasoning | 68.3% |
| Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks, higher is better 173 · 116 of 190 measured | 2.3%no reasoning | 13.6% |
| τ²-bench telecom% of tasks, higher is better 142 · 105 of 193 measured | 27.8%thinking reasoning | 47.1% |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4 reported by Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4 · 5 results | ||
| Multi-turn tasks · BFCL% correct, higher is better 23 · 26 of 81 measured | 41.8%bfcl fc | 38.9%bfcl fc |
| Relevance detection · BFCL% correct, higher is better 8 · 1 of 81 measured | 93.8%bfcl fc | 100.0%bfcl prompt |
| Single-turn calls (curated) · BFCL% correct, higher is better 14 · 11 of 81 measured | 88.6%bfcl prompt | 88.7%bfcl prompt |
| Single-turn calls (user-contributed) · BFCL% correct, higher is better 9 · 14 of 81 measured | 80.5%bfcl fc | 78.9%bfcl prompt |
| Web search · BFCL% correct, higher is better 35 · 15 of 81 measured | 13.5%bfcl prompt | 68.0%bfcl fc |
Compare them with other models
Quick answers
Is Qwen3-8B better than GPT-4.1?
Pick GPT-4.1 if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 12.7 against 7.3). Pick Qwen3-8B if cost matters more: it costs 17 times less per token.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3-8B or GPT-4.1?
Qwen3-8B is cheaper: $0.20 against $3.50 per million tokens, 17 times less.
Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3-8B or GPT-4.1?
GPT-4.1 ranks 41 of 164 models on sale for multi-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls, against 128 for Qwen3-8B.
Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Qwen3-8B or GPT-4.1?
GPT-4.1 ranks 151 of 198 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 169 for Qwen3-8B.
Which is better for writing, Qwen3-8B or GPT-4.1?
GPT-4.1 ranks 56 of 188 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 159 for Qwen3-8B.
Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3-8B or GPT-4.1?
Qwen3-8B ranks 6 of 152 models on sale for summarising without inventing things, and factual answers, against 93 for GPT-4.1.
Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3-8B or GPT-4.1?
GPT-4.1: 1,047,576 tokens, against 131,072 for Qwen3-8B.
Run Qwen3-8B and GPT-4.1 on your own prompt
Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.