# GPT-4.1 mini vs Qwen3.8 Max

> Qwen3.8 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.0 to 33.5 on the Noometry Index. GPT-4.1 mini costs 4.3× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.8 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gpt-4-1-mini-vs-qwen3-8-max
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 29

## Summary

- They share 29 benchmarks with published results for both. GPT-4.1 mini scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3.8 Max in 10 categories; 10 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Qwen3.8 Max leads 73.1 to 23.1.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3): 6.7% for GPT-4.1 mini and 74.7% for Qwen3.8 Max.
- GPT-4.1 mini is cheaper at $0.40 / $1.60 per million input/output tokens, against $2 / $6 for Qwen3.8 Max.
- GPT-4.1 mini accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 1M.

## Snapshot

| | GPT-4.1 mini | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | OpenAI | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 33.5 | 56.0 |
| Rank | 232 | 21 |
| Context | 1.05M | 1M |
| Input $/M | $0.40 | $2 |
| Output $/M | $1.60 | $6 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |

## Coding

- GPT-4.1 mini: 30.4 (#286)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 52.3 (#30)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 40.4% | 52.9% |
| LMArena Coding | 1367 | 1499 |
| DeepSWE | — | 57.5% |
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | 23.9% | — |
| Aider Polyglot | 32.4% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1671 |
| FrontierSWE | — | 15.8% |
| WeirdML | 37.6% | — |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 48.9% | — |
| CadEval | 16% | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- GPT-4.1 mini: 33.0 (#52)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 42.6 (#17)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 50.5% | — |
| τ²-bench Banking | — | 55.1% |
| GDP.pdf | — | 23.2% |

## Reasoning

- GPT-4.1 mini: 10.9 (#335)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 53.4 (#26)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 0% | 20% |
| Chess Puzzles | 7% | 40% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1349 | 1493 |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 7% | 38% |
| DTBench | 68.8% | 92% |
| LMCA | 21.1% | 46.2% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 135.01 | 156.69 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 0% | — |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 48.6% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 88.3% |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 3.5% | — |

## Math

- GPT-4.1 mini: 23.1 (#264)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 73.1 (#15)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 6.7% | 74.7% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 44.7% | 100% |
| LMArena Math | 1343 | 1498 |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | — | 46.3% |
| ProofBench | — | 58% |
| Omni-MATH | 49.1% | — |
| MATH Level 5 | 87.3% | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 4.5% | — |

## Knowledge

- GPT-4.1 mini: 34.7 (#183)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 61.7 (#25)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 65.8% | 92.7% |
| SimpleQA Verified | 12.7% | 47.3% |
| LMArena Expert | 1338 | 1504 |
| MMLU-Pro | 78.3% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 61.4% | — |

## Multimodal

- GPT-4.1 mini: 35.2 (#77)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 36.9 (#70)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1181 | 1314 |
| Furniture Assembly | — | 20% |

## Multilingual

- GPT-4.1 mini: 45.9 (#161)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 56.6 (#18)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1318 | 1468 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1329 | 1537 |
| LMArena French | 1357 | 1502 |
| LMArena German | 1349 | 1489 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1291 | 1466 |
| LMArena Korean | 1298 | 1467 |
| LMArena Russian | 1324 | 1478 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1319 | 1495 |

## Instruction Following

- GPT-4.1 mini: 73.9 (#113)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 77.7 (#19)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1332 | 1478 |
| IFEval | 90.4% | — |

## Long Context

- GPT-4.1 mini: 31.8 (#270)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 45.5 (#30)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1344 | 1486 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | 44.4% | — |

## Writing & Preference

- GPT-4.1 mini: 48.8 (#193)
- Qwen3.8 Max: 67.0 (#31)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1341 | 1480 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1300 | 1478 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1354 | 1487 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1147 | — |
| WildBench | 83.8% | — |

## FAQ

### Is GPT-4.1 mini better than Qwen3.8 Max?

Qwen3.8 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.0 to 33.5 on the Noometry Index. GPT-4.1 mini costs 4.3× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.8 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, GPT-4.1 mini or Qwen3.8 Max?

GPT-4.1 mini is cheaper. It lists at $0.40 per million input tokens and $1.60 per million output tokens; Qwen3.8 Max lists at $2 and $6.

### Is GPT-4.1 mini or Qwen3.8 Max better for coding?

Qwen3.8 Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 52.3 versus 30.4 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

GPT-4.1 mini does, with 1.05M tokens against 1M.

### How many benchmarks do GPT-4.1 mini and Qwen3.8 Max share?

29 benchmarks have published results for both models. GPT-4.1 mini has 47 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.8 Max has 38.
