Model comparison

o3-mini vs Qwen2.5 32B Instruct

o3-mini is the stronger model overall, scoring 36.7 to 30.1 on the Noometry Index. Qwen2.5 32B Instruct costs 1.6× less per token, which makes it the better buy when o3-mini's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 5 shared benchmarks.

o3-mini OpenAI

36.7

Rank #212 Confirmed

Qwen2.5 32B Instruct Alibaba (Qwen)

30.1

Rank #297 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 5 benchmarks with published results for both. o3-mini scores higher in 3 categories and Qwen2.5 32B Instruct in 1 category; 4 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in knowledge, where o3-mini leads 38.3 to 24.9.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 76.9% for o3-mini and 7.4% for Qwen2.5 32B Instruct.
  • Qwen2.5 32B Instruct is cheaper at $0.70 / $2.80 per million input/output tokens, against $1.10 / $4.40 for o3-mini.
  • o3-mini accepts more context: 200K tokens versus 131K.
  • Qwen2.5 32B Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

o3-mini and Qwen2.5 32B Instruct specifications
o3-miniQwen2.5 32B Instruct
ProviderOpenAIAlibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index36.730.1
Released2024-12-202024-09
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window200K131K
Max output100K8K
Input $ / M tokens$1.10$0.70
Output $ / M tokens$4.40$2.80
Results tracked517

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Category by category

Coding o3-mini leads

o3-mini: 40.8 (#132), Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: 38.7 (#169)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmarko3-miniQwen2.5 32B Instruct
Aider Polyglot60.4%—
SciCode39.8%—
GSO1.3%—
WeirdML43.7%—
BigCodeBench Instruct—45%
LiveBench Coding82.7%—
LMArena Coding1378—
BigCodeBench Complete—52.3%
CadEval54%—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

o3-mini: 29.6 (#84), Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmarko3-miniQwen2.5 32B Instruct
Cybench22.5%—

Reasoning Qwen2.5 32B Instruct leads

o3-mini: 16.3 (#305), Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: 19.2 (#266)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmarko3-miniQwen2.5 32B Instruct
Chess Puzzles17%0%
Epoch Capabilities Index140.34128.52
ARC-AGI-23%—
SimpleBench22.8%—
ARC-AGI-134.5%—
CritPt0.3%—
LiveBench Reasoning89.6%—
LMArena Hard Prompts1366—
Mystery Game Puzzles7%—
DTBench68.8%—
LiveBench Data Analysis70.6%—
LMCA19%—
ForecastBench59.6—
LiveBench75.9%—

Math o3-mini leads

o3-mini: 28.1 (#244), Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: 16.2 (#296)

Math benchmarks
Benchmarko3-miniQwen2.5 32B Instruct
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202576.9%7.4%
MATH Level 596.5%56.1%
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)18.6%—
FrontierMath Tier 40%—
LiveBench Math77.3%—
LMArena Math1396—
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)12.4%—
FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1)4.2%—

Knowledge o3-mini leads

o3-mini: 38.3 (#146), Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: 24.9 (#266)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmarko3-miniQwen2.5 32B Instruct
GPQA Diamond77%46.1%
SimpleQA Verified15.3%—
Confabulations17.9%—
LMArena Expert1364—

Multilingual Not comparable

o3-mini: 45.7 (#164), Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: —

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmarko3-miniQwen2.5 32B Instruct
LMArena Non-English1319—
LMArena Chinese1379—
LMArena French1334—
LMArena German1303—
LMArena Japanese1286—
LMArena Korean1314—
LMArena Russian1304—
LMArena Spanish1321—

Instruction Following Not comparable

o3-mini: 75.1 (#72), Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: —

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmarko3-miniQwen2.5 32B Instruct
LiveBench Instruction Following84.4%—
LMArena Instruction Following1337—

Long Context Not comparable

o3-mini: 33.8 (#256), Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: —

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmarko3-miniQwen2.5 32B Instruct
Fiction.LiveBench50%—
LMArena Longer Query1343—

Writing & Preference Not comparable

o3-mini: 50.3 (#182), Qwen2.5 32B Instruct: —

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmarko3-miniQwen2.5 32B Instruct
LMArena Text1337—
LMArena Creative Writing1286—
Short-Story Creative Writing61.7%—
LMArena Multi-Turn1320—
LiveBench Language50.7%—

Frequently asked questions

Is o3-mini better than Qwen2.5 32B Instruct?

o3-mini is the stronger model overall, scoring 36.7 to 30.1 on the Noometry Index. Qwen2.5 32B Instruct costs 1.6× less per token, which makes it the better buy when o3-mini's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, o3-mini or Qwen2.5 32B Instruct?

Qwen2.5 32B Instruct is cheaper. It lists at $0.70 per million input tokens and $2.80 per million output tokens; o3-mini lists at $1.10 and $4.40.

Is o3-mini or Qwen2.5 32B Instruct better for coding?

o3-mini scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.8 versus 38.7 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

o3-mini does, with 200K tokens against 131K.

How many benchmarks do o3-mini and Qwen2.5 32B Instruct share?

5 benchmarks have published results for both models. o3-mini has 51 scored results on Noometry and Qwen2.5 32B Instruct has 7.

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