GPT-4.1 Nano vs Qwen 2.5 Max: Pricing, Benchmarks & Verdict (2026)

Verdict

GPT-4.1 Nano is significantly cheaper at $0.10/$0.40 per million tokens vs $0.16/$0.64. Qwen 2.5 Max is stronger for coding with a coding ELO of 1250 vs 1150. GPT-4.1 Nano is faster at 150 tokens/sec vs 80 tokens/sec. Qwen 2.5 Max ranks higher overall with an Arena ELO of 1260 vs 1180. GPT-4.1 Nano offers a larger 1048K context window vs 128K.

Side-by-Side Comparison

FeatureGPT-4.1 NanoQwen 2.5 Max
ProviderOpenAIAlibaba
Input Price / 1M tokens$0.100$0.160
Output Price / 1M tokens$0.400$0.640
Context Window1.047576M128K
Max Output Tokens32,7688,192
Arena ELO1,1801,260
Coding ELO1,1501,250
TTFT (ms)130240
Tokens/sec15080
MultimodalYesNo
JSON ModeYesYes
Function CallingYesYes
VisionYesNo
When to Use GPT-4.1 Nano

Choose GPT-4.1 Nano when you need: ultra-low pricing, 1m context window, very fast inference, ideal for simple tasks at scale. It excels at chatbots, classification, cost-sensitive, high-volume tasks. It is also the more cost-effective option between the two. Its 1048K context window is larger, making it better for long-document processing.

Strengths:

  • Ultra-low pricing
  • 1M context window
  • Very fast inference
  • Ideal for simple tasks at scale

Best for:

chatbotsclassificationcost-sensitivehigh-volume
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.

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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