Model comparison
GPT-4.1 mini vs Qwen3.6 Max Preview
Qwen3.6 Max Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 51.1 to 33.5 on the Noometry Index. GPT-4.1 mini costs 4.2× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.6 Max Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 23 shared benchmarks.
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 23 benchmarks with published results for both. GPT-4.1 mini scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3.6 Max Preview in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads 40.8 to 10.9.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 44.7% for GPT-4.1 mini and 91.1% for Qwen3.6 Max Preview.
- GPT-4.1 mini is cheaper at $0.40 / $1.60 per million input/output tokens, against $1.30 / $7.80 for Qwen3.6 Max Preview.
- GPT-4.1 mini accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 262K.
Side by side
| GPT-4.1 mini | Qwen3.6 Max Preview | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | OpenAI | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 33.5 | 51.1 |
| Released | 2025-04-14 | 2026-04-20 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Context window | 1.05M | 262K |
| Max output | 33K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.40 | $1.30 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $1.60 | $7.80 |
| Results tracked | 47 | 29 |
Sponsored placements are available on pages like this one. Advertise on Noometry
Category by category
Coding Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
GPT-4.1 mini: 30.4 (#286), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 48.6 (#50)
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1367 | 1472 |
| SWE-bench Verified | — | 76.7% |
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | 23.9% | — |
| Aider Polyglot | 32.4% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1482 |
| SciCode | 40.4% | — |
| WeirdML | 37.6% | — |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 48.9% | — |
| CadEval | 16% | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
GPT-4.1 mini: 33.0 (#52), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: —
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 50.5% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 4,254 |
Reasoning Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
GPT-4.1 mini: 10.9 (#335), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 40.8 (#47)
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| Chess Puzzles | 7% | 20% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1349 | 1457 |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 7% | 19% |
| DTBench | 68.8% | 87.2% |
| LMCA | 21.1% | 42.5% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 135.01 | 149.27 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 0% | — |
| SimpleBench | — | 63% |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 48.6% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 74.1% |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 3.5% | — |
| CritPt | 0% | — |
Math Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
GPT-4.1 mini: 23.1 (#264), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 52.2 (#40)
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 44.7% | 91.1% |
| LMArena Math | 1343 | 1465 |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 4.5% | 23.1% |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 6.7% | — |
| Omni-MATH | 49.1% | — |
| MATH Level 5 | 87.3% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | — | 4.2% |
Knowledge Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
GPT-4.1 mini: 34.7 (#183), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 57.6 (#35)
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 65.8% | 87.4% |
| SimpleQA Verified | 12.7% | 52% |
| LMArena Expert | 1338 | 1476 |
| MMLU-Pro | 78.3% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 61.4% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
GPT-4.1 mini: 35.2 (#77), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: —
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1181 | — |
Multilingual Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
GPT-4.1 mini: 45.9 (#161), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 54.3 (#46)
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1318 | 1436 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1329 | 1487 |
| LMArena French | 1357 | 1449 |
| LMArena Russian | 1324 | 1444 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1319 | 1452 |
| LMArena German | 1349 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1291 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1298 | — |
Instruction Following Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
GPT-4.1 mini: 73.9 (#113), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 75.8 (#51)
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1332 | 1437 |
| IFEval | 90.4% | — |
Long Context Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
GPT-4.1 mini: 31.8 (#270), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 44.6 (#59)
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1344 | 1457 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | 44.4% | — |
Writing & Preference Qwen3.6 Max Preview leads
GPT-4.1 mini: 48.8 (#193), Qwen3.6 Max Preview: 64.0 (#58)
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1341 | 1447 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1300 | 1435 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1354 | 1456 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1147 | — |
| WildBench | 83.8% | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is GPT-4.1 mini better than Qwen3.6 Max Preview?
Qwen3.6 Max Preview is the stronger model overall, scoring 51.1 to 33.5 on the Noometry Index. GPT-4.1 mini costs 4.2× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.6 Max Preview's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, GPT-4.1 mini or Qwen3.6 Max Preview?
GPT-4.1 mini is cheaper. It lists at $0.40 per million input tokens and $1.60 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 Max Preview lists at $1.30 and $7.80.
Is GPT-4.1 mini or Qwen3.6 Max Preview better for coding?
Qwen3.6 Max Preview scores higher on coding benchmarks: 48.6 versus 30.4 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
GPT-4.1 mini does, with 1.05M tokens against 262K.
How many benchmarks do GPT-4.1 mini and Qwen3.6 Max Preview share?
23 benchmarks have published results for both models. GPT-4.1 mini has 47 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.6 Max Preview has 29.