LLMversus

GPT-4 1.5-mini vs Qwen 2.5 Max: Pricing, Benchmarks & Verdict (2026)

Pricing verified Apr 20, 2026By LLMversusUpdated June 14, 2026View methodology

⚡ Quick Answer

Qwen 2.5 Max is significantly cheaper at $0.16/$0.64 per million tokens vs $0.40/$1.60. GPT-4.1 Mini is faster at 115 tokens/sec vs 80 tokens/sec. Qwen 2.5 Max ranks higher overall with an Arena ELO of 1260 vs 1240. GPT-4.1 Mini offers a larger 1048K context window vs 128K.

Updated: April 20, 2026 · ✓ Pricing verified

Side-by-Side Comparison

FeatureGPT-4 1.5-miniQwen 2.5 Max
ProviderOpenAIAlibaba
Input Price / 1M tokens$0.400$0.160
Output Price / 1M tokens$1.60$0.640
Context Window
128K
128K
Max Output Tokens
4,096
8,192
Arena ELO
1,180
1,260
Coding ELO
1,200
1,250
TTFT (ms)
140
240
Tokens/sec
120
80
MultimodalNoNo
JSON ModeYesYes
Function CallingYesYes
VisionNoNo
When to Use GPT-4 1.5-mini

Choose GPT-4.1 Mini when you need: 1m token context window at low cost, great balance of speed and quality, strong coding for a mini model, affordable for high-volume use. It excels at chatbots, long-context, cost-sensitive tasks. Its 1048K context window is larger, making it better for long-document processing.

Strengths:

  • Affordable
  • Fast
  • Large context

Best for:

cost-effectivegeneral-purpose
When to Use Qwen 2.5 Max

Choose Qwen 2.5 Max when you need: extremely competitive pricing, strong coding and general capabilities, open-source model available, good multilingual support including chinese. It excels at coding, general-purpose, cost-sensitive, open-source tasks. It is also the more cost-effective option between the two.

Strengths:

  • Extremely competitive pricing
  • Strong coding and general capabilities
  • Open-source model available
  • Good multilingual support including Chinese

Best for:

codinggeneral-purposecost-sensitiveopen-source

Frequently Asked Questions

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