Side-by-side comparison of pricing, 12 benchmarks, and generation speed.
| Metric | Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct | GPT-4.1 mini |
|---|---|---|
| Input ($/M tokens) | $0.4 | $0.4 |
| Output ($/M tokens) | $1.6 | $1.6 |
Verdict. GPT-4.1 mini takes the aggregate benchmark matchup 2–0 across 2 categories. Real workloads usually care about a handful of specific tasks — see the per-benchmark table above.
Pricing. Both models sit in the budget bracket for output-token pricing. At 1.0× the per-million-token cost, GPT-4.1 mini is meaningfully cheaper if your traffic is output-heavy (long completions, document generation, agent loops). GPT-4.1 mini makes more sense when output volume is low and absolute reasoning quality justifies the premium.
Strengths. Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct is strongest on Intelligence Index (9.9). GPT-4.1 mini leads on Coding Index (20.2), Intelligence Index (10.2).
Speed. On throughput, GPT-4.1 mini generates tokens at 124 tok/s versus 49 tok/s — about 61% faster. On time-to-first-token, GPT-4.1 mini responds in 860ms vs 2680ms, which matters most for chat-style UIs.
Provider. Alibaba and OpenAI sell to overlapping but distinct developer audiences: Alibaba tends to ship frontier reasoning models with premium positioning, while OpenAI often prices more aggressively. Your existing vendor relationships, billing, and SLA preferences may matter as much as the raw numbers above.
Workload cost. Workload scenarios (per million requests at 30M input + 15M output tokens): Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct costs $36.00 ($432/year); GPT-4.1 mini costs $36.00 ($432/year). At a smaller 5M-input/2M-output scale (single-developer tool or prototype): Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct ≈ $5.20/run, GPT-4.1 mini ≈ $5.20/run. At agent/realtime scale (200M input / 100M output per million requests): Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct ≈ $240/run, GPT-4.1 mini ≈ $240/run.
Recommendation. Both models have legitimate use cases — the right answer depends on whether you are optimizing for benchmark ceiling, latency, or unit cost. Start with the cheaper / faster model, evaluate against your specific task, and only switch if the upgrade shows a meaningful lift.
Head-to-head deltas
Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks
Both models have similar pricing. Check the detailed breakdown above for input vs output token costs.
GPT-4.1 mini wins 2 out of 12 benchmarks compared to 0 for Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct. See the detailed benchmark chart above for per-category results.
GPT-4.1 mini generates tokens faster at 124 tok/s vs 49 tok/s. However, GPT-4.1 mini has lower time-to-first-token (0.86s vs 2.68s).
Choose based on your priorities: both are similarly priced, GPT-4.1 mini for stronger benchmark performance, and GPT-4.1 mini for faster generation. For latency-sensitive apps, check the TTFT comparison above.