Qwen-Plus vs GPT-5 mini
Side-by-side comparison of API pricing, specs, benchmarks, and capabilities
Qwen-Plus is 12.7% cheaper on blended cost ($0.600 vs $0.688/Mtok)
| Specification |
by Alibaba
|
by OpenAI
|
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Status | Current mid tier | Current mid tier |
| Released | Oct 1, 2025 | Aug 7, 2025 |
| Pricing per million tokens | ||
| Input | $0.400/Mtok | $0.250/Mtok |
| Output | $1.20/Mtok | $2.00/Mtok |
| Blended avg | $0.600/Mtok | $0.688/Mtok |
| Cached input | — | $0.025/Mtok |
| Specifications | ||
| Context window | 131K tokens | 400K tokens |
| Parameters | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Speed (TPS) | — | — |
| Modalities | ||
| Input |
text
|
textimage
|
| Benchmarks sources: LMSYS Chatbot Arena (UC Berkeley) / Artificial Analysis | ||
| Independent composite scores each on its own scale — not part of the average above | ||
| AA Intelligence Index | — | 25.8 |
| AA Agentic Index | — | 19.6 |
| AA-Omniscience Index (−100–100) | — | -17.3 |
| LMSYS Chatbot Arena | 1346.1 ELO | — |
| Providers | ||
| Available from |
Alibaba — $0.400/$1.20/Mtok
|
OpenAI — $0.250/$2.00/Mtok
|
Cost at scale
1M tokens · 50/50 input/output| Volume | Qwen-Plus | GPT-5 mini | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1M tokens | $0.6 | $0.69 | $0.09 (13.1%) |
| 10M tokens | $6 | $6.88 | $0.87 (12.7%) |
| 100M tokens | $60 | $68.75 | $8.75 (12.7%) |
| 1000M tokens | $600 | $687.5 | $87.5 (12.7%) |
When to pick which
distilled from the pricing and spec data above
Pick Qwen-Plus if…
- cost dominates: $0.600/Mtok blended vs $0.688 — 12.7% less on the same 50/50 token mix
Pick GPT-5 mini if…
- your workload re-reads context (agents, RAG, long chats): cached input costs $0.025/Mtok — 90% off its list input price, a discount Qwen-Plus doesn't offer
- you need the longer context: 400K tokens vs 131K (3.1×)
Try Qwen-Plus on Alibaba
The cheaper option here — Qwen-Plus costs $0.600/Mtok blended on Alibaba.
Summary
Qwen-Plus by Alibaba costs $0.400/Mtok input and $1.20/Mtok output, with a 131K-token context window. It supports text input.
GPT-5 mini by OpenAI costs $0.250/Mtok input and $2.00/Mtok output, with a 400K-token context window. It supports text, image input.
On a blended cost basis, Qwen-Plus is 12.7% cheaper than GPT-5 mini.
Note: Pricing is per million tokens. Actual costs vary with usage patterns, prompt caching, and batch discounts. Always verify against official provider pricing pages.
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