Compare/GPT-4.1 vs Qwen3.6 Max Preview

GPT-4.1vsQwen3.6 Max Preview

Side-by-side comparison of pricing, 12 benchmarks, and generation speed.

OpenAI

GPT-4.1

Input
$2/M
Output
$8/M
Speed
102 tok/s
TTFT
0.64s
Alibaba

Qwen3.6 Max Preview

Input
$1.3/M
Output
$7.8/M
Speed
36 tok/s
TTFT
2.40s

Winner by Category

Cheaper
Qwen3.6 Max Preview
Faster (tok/s)
GPT-4.1
Lower Latency
GPT-4.1
Benchmarks (5-7)
Qwen3.6 Max Preview

Pricing Comparison

MetricGPT-4.1Qwen3.6 Max Preview
Input ($/M tokens)$2$1.3
Output ($/M tokens)$8$7.8
Cost for 1M input + 100K output tokens:
GPT-4.1$2.80
Qwen3.6 Max Preview$2.08

Speed Comparison

Output Speed (tokens/s) — higher is better
GPT-4.1
102 tok/s
Qwen3.6 Max Preview
36 tok/s
Time to First Token (seconds) — lower is better
GPT-4.1
0.64s
Qwen3.6 Max Preview
2.40s

Benchmark Comparison

Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks

Intelligence Index
26.351.8
Coding Index
21.844.9
Math Index
34.7
GPQA Diamond
66.6%88.8%
MMLU-Pro
80.6%
LiveCodeBench
45.7%
AIME 2025
34.7%
MATH-500
91.3%
Humanity's Last Exam
4.6%28.9%
SciCode
38.1%46.9%
IFBench
43.0%76.6%
TerminalBench
13.6%43.9%
GPT-4.15 wins
7 winsQwen3.6 Max Preview

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is cheaper, GPT-4.1 or Qwen3.6 Max Preview?

Qwen3.6 Max Preview is cheaper overall. Its blended price (3:1 input/output ratio) is $2.92/M tokens vs $3.50/M for GPT-4.1.

Which model performs better on benchmarks?

Qwen3.6 Max Preview wins 7 out of 12 benchmarks compared to 5 for GPT-4.1. See the detailed benchmark chart above for per-category results.

Which is faster for real-time applications?

GPT-4.1 generates tokens faster at 102 tok/s vs 36 tok/s. GPT-4.1 also has lower time-to-first-token (0.64s vs 2.40s).

When should I use GPT-4.1 vs Qwen3.6 Max Preview?

Choose based on your priorities: Qwen3.6 Max Preview for lower cost, Qwen3.6 Max Preview for stronger benchmark performance, and GPT-4.1 for faster generation. For latency-sensitive apps, check the TTFT comparison above.