Model Comparison
GPT-5 Medium vs Qwen3 VL 32B ThinkingWhich is better in 2026?
GPT-5 Medium significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Verdict: GPT-5 Medium vs Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking — which is better?
GPT-5 Medium (by OpenAI) and Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking (by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team) are two of the AI models people compare most. Here is how they stack up on benchmarks, price and capabilities, and which one to pick in 2026.
GPT-5 Medium outperforms in 2 benchmarks (AIME 2025, GPQA), while Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking is better at 0 benchmarks. GPT-5 Medium significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Choose GPT-5 Medium if…
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 2 of 2 shared benchmarks
Choose Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking if…
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2025
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
GPT-5 Medium outperforms in 2 benchmarks (AIME 2025, GPQA), while Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking is better at 0 benchmarks.
GPT-5 Medium significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Human preference votes
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Only GPT-5 Medium specifies input context (400,000 tokens). Only GPT-5 Medium specifies output context (128,000 tokens).
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Both GPT-5 Medium and Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking support multimodal inputs.
They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.
GPT-5 Medium
Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking
License
Usage and distribution terms
GPT-5 Medium is licensed under a proprietary license, while Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking uses Apache 2.0.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Proprietary
Closed source
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
GPT-5 Medium was released on 2025-08-07, while Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking was released on 2025-09-22.
Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking is 2 months newer than GPT-5 Medium.
Aug 7, 2025
10 months ago
Sep 22, 2025
8 months ago
1mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
GPT-5 Medium has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-09-30, while Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm GPT-5 Medium's training data extends to 2024-09-30, but cannot make a direct comparison without Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking's cutoff date.
Sep 2024
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Outputs Comparison
Key Takeaways
GPT-5 Medium
View detailsOpenAI
Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking
View detailsAlibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Detailed Comparison
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FAQ
Common questions about GPT-5 Medium vs Qwen3 VL 32B Thinking.