Compare / Qwen3 Max vs GPT-4.1 Nano
Qwen3 Max vs GPT-4.1 Nano
Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 14 results on 3 sources that measured both models.
Qwen3 Max or GPT-4.1 Nano? The short answer
- GPT-4.1 Nano is cheaper: $0.18 against $1.56 per million tokens, 8.9 times less.
- Qwen3 Max scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 15.6 against 7.8.
- On our business benchmarks, Qwen3 Max ranks higher for reasoning and knowledge, writing and sticking to the facts.
- On our business benchmarks, GPT-4.1 Nano ranks higher for agents and tool use.
At a glance
| Qwen3 Max | GPT-4.1 Nano | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per million tokens | $0.78 in · $3.90 out | $0.10 in · $0.40 out |
| Blended (3 in : 1 out) | $1.56 | $0.18 |
| Cheapest host, blended | – | $0.18 (Azure) |
| Intelligence Index | 15.6 | 7.8 |
| Spring Prompt overall | – | – |
| Output speed, tokens a second | – | – |
| Context window | 262,144 tokens | 1,047,576 tokens |
| Weights | Closed | 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 models available today, for each kind of work, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. The better rank is in green.
| Use case | Qwen3 Max | GPT-4.1 Nano |
|---|---|---|
| Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls | 151 of 161 | 139 of 161 |
| Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge | 117 of 195 | 169 of 195 |
| WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality | 96 of 187 | 162 of 187 |
| Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers | 50 of 153 | 151 of 153 |
Every shared result
| Benchmark | Metric | Qwen3 Max | GPT-4.1 Nano |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena)reported | Business, management and financeArena rating | 1,419 | 1,321 |
| Arena (formerly LMArena)reported | Creative writingArena rating | 1,393 | 1,307 |
| Arena (formerly LMArena)reported | Expert promptsArena rating | 1,418 | 1,313 |
| Arena (formerly LMArena)reported | Instruction followingArena rating | 1,413 | 1,300 |
| Arena (formerly LMArena)reported | OverallArena rating | 1,423 | 1,322 |
| Arena (formerly LMArena)reported | Writing, literature and languageArena rating | 1,405 | 1,299 |
| Artificial Analysisreported | Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score | 15.6 | 7.80 |
| Artificial Analysisreported | GPQA Diamond% of questions | 76.4% | 51.2% |
| Artificial Analysisreported | Humanity's Last Exam% of questions | 11.9% | 3.8% |
| Artificial Analysisreported | IFBench% of instructions | 44.1% | 32.0% |
| Artificial Analysisreported | Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions | 50.0% | 20.3% |
| Artificial Analysisreported | Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks | 20.5% | 3.8% |
| Artificial Analysisreported | Τ²-bench telecom% of tasks | 74.3% | 17.3% |
| SimpleQA Verified (Epoch AI)reported | Correct answers% of questions | 48.7% | 6.0% |
Bold green marks the better value on that metric. Where a source reports ranges that overlap, the difference may not be meaningful; see the benchmark page for ranges.
Quick answers
Is Qwen3 Max better than GPT-4.1 Nano?
It depends on the task. Among models available today, on our benchmarks and licensed sources, Qwen3 Max ranks higher for reasoning and knowledge, writing and sticking to the facts; GPT-4.1 Nano ranks higher for agents and tool use.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3 Max or GPT-4.1 Nano?
GPT-4.1 Nano costs $0.18 per million tokens (three input to one output), against $1.56 for Qwen3 Max.
Run Qwen3 Max and GPT-4.1 Nano on your own prompt
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