Noometry

Model comparison

GPT-4.1 mini vs Qwen3.8 27B

Qwen3.8 27B is the stronger model overall, scoring 46.0 to 33.6 on the Noometry Index. GPT-4.1 mini costs 1.6× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.8 27B's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 26 shared benchmarks.

GPT-4.1 mini OpenAI

33.6

Rank #240 Confirmed

Qwen3.8 27B Alibaba (Qwen)

46.0

Rank #68 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 26 benchmarks with published results for both. GPT-4.1 mini scores higher in 1 category and Qwen3.8 27B in 9 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in reasoning, where Qwen3.8 27B leads 41.0 to 10.8.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is ARC-AGI-1: 3.5% for GPT-4.1 mini and 87.5% for Qwen3.8 27B.
  • GPT-4.1 mini is cheaper at $0.40 / $1.60 per million input/output tokens, against $0.99 / $1.49 for Qwen3.8 27B.
  • GPT-4.1 mini accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 262K.
  • Qwen3.8 27B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

GPT-4.1 miniQwen3.8 27B
ProviderOpenAIAlibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index33.646.0
Released2025-04-142026-08-14
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M262K
Max output33K33K
Input $ / M tokens$0.40$0.99
Output $ / M tokens$1.60$1.49
Results tracked4731

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Category by category

Coding Qwen3.8 27B leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 30.6 (#293), Qwen3.8 27B: 50.5 (#44)

BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniQwen3.8 27B
SciCode40.4%46.6%
LMArena Coding13671482
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)23.9%—
Aider Polyglot32.4%—
LMArena WebDev—1593
WeirdML37.6%—
BigCodeBench Instruct48.9%—
CadEval16%—

Agentic & Tool Use Too close to call

GPT-4.1 mini: 33.3 (#55), Qwen3.8 27B: 32.9 (#57)

BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniQwen3.8 27B
APEX-Agents—47.5%
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard50.5%—

Reasoning Qwen3.8 27B leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 10.8 (#340), Qwen3.8 27B: 41.0 (#54)

BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniQwen3.8 27B
ARC-AGI-20%42.4%
ARC-AGI-13.5%87.5%
CritPt0%5.4%
LMArena Hard Prompts13491460
DTBench68.8%88%
LMCA21.1%41.4%
Epoch Capabilities Index135.01149.38
Kagi LLM Benchmark48.6%—
NYT Connections (extended)—54.5%
Chess Puzzles7%—
Mystery Game Puzzles7%—
Surface Evolver Bench—45%

Math Qwen3.8 27B leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 24.1 (#270), Qwen3.8 27B: 37.1 (#161)

BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniQwen3.8 27B
LMArena Math13431456
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)6.7%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202544.7%—
ProofBench—16%
Omni-MATH49.1%—
MATH Level 587.3%—
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)4.5%—

Knowledge Qwen3.8 27B leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 34.7 (#194), Qwen3.8 27B: 41.6 (#109)

BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniQwen3.8 27B
LMArena Expert13381482
GPQA Diamond65.8%—
SimpleQA Verified12.7%—
MMLU-Pro78.3%—
GPQA (HELM)61.4%—

Multimodal Qwen3.8 27B leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 35.8 (#82), Qwen3.8 27B: 41.3 (#37)

BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniQwen3.8 27B
LMArena Vision11811271

Multilingual Qwen3.8 27B leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 45.7 (#166), Qwen3.8 27B: 53.7 (#60)

BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniQwen3.8 27B
LMArena Non-English13181430
LMArena Chinese13291504
LMArena French13581465
LMArena German13511438
LMArena Japanese12901384
LMArena Korean12981393
LMArena Russian13241415
LMArena Spanish13191448

Instruction Following Qwen3.8 27B leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 73.7 (#118), Qwen3.8 27B: 75.8 (#53)

BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniQwen3.8 27B
LMArena Instruction Following13331439
IFEval90.4%—

Long Context Qwen3.8 27B leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 31.8 (#275), Qwen3.8 27B: 44.3 (#70)

BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniQwen3.8 27B
LMArena Longer Query13441450
Fiction.LiveBench44.4%—

Writing & Preference Qwen3.8 27B leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 48.6 (#199), Qwen3.8 27B: 65.8 (#43)

BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniQwen3.8 27B
LMArena Text13401441
LMArena Creative Writing13001384
EQ-Bench Creative Writing11471671
LMArena Multi-Turn13541441
WildBench83.8%—

Frequently asked questions

Is GPT-4.1 mini better than Qwen3.8 27B?

Qwen3.8 27B is the stronger model overall, scoring 46.0 to 33.6 on the Noometry Index. GPT-4.1 mini costs 1.6× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.8 27B's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, GPT-4.1 mini or Qwen3.8 27B?

GPT-4.1 mini is cheaper. It lists at $0.40 per million input tokens and $1.60 per million output tokens; Qwen3.8 27B lists at $0.99 and $1.49.

Is GPT-4.1 mini or Qwen3.8 27B better for coding?

Qwen3.8 27B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 50.5 versus 30.6 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 Qwen3.8 27B share?

26 benchmarks have published results for both models. GPT-4.1 mini has 47 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.8 27B has 31.

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