Model Comparison
o3 vs Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507Which is better in 2026?
o3 shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks. Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 is 3.6x cheaper per token.
Verdict: o3 vs Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 — which is better?
o3 (by OpenAI) and Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 (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.
o3 outperforms in 4 benchmarks (GPQA, Tau2 Airline, Tau2 Retail, Tau2 Telecom), while Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 is better at 2 benchmarks (AIME 2025, Humanity's Last Exam). o3 shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
On price, Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 is roughly 3.6x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 also accepts a larger context window (262,144 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Choose o3 if…
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 4 of 6 shared benchmarks
Choose Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 if…
- cost matters — it's about 3.6x cheaper per token
- you process long inputs — it offers a 262,144 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jul 2025
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
o3 outperforms in 4 benchmarks (GPQA, Tau2 Airline, Tau2 Retail, Tau2 Telecom), while Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 is better at 2 benchmarks (AIME 2025, Humanity's Last Exam).
o3 shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Human preference votes
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, o3 ($2.00/1M tokens) is 6.7x more expensive than Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 ($0.30/1M tokens).
For output processing, o3 ($8.00/1M tokens) is 2.7x more expensive than Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 ($3.00/1M tokens).
In conclusion, o3 is more expensive than Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 accepts 262,144 input tokens compared to o3's 200,000 tokens. Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 can generate longer responses up to 131,072 tokens, while o3 is limited to 100,000 tokens.
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
o3 supports multimodal inputs, whereas Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 does not.
o3 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
o3
Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507
License
Usage and distribution terms
o3 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 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
o3 was released on 2025-04-16, while Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 was released on 2025-07-25.
Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 is 3 months newer than o3.
Apr 16, 2025
1.3 years ago
Jul 25, 2025
1.0 years ago
3mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
o3 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-05-31, while Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm o3's training data extends to 2024-05-31, but cannot make a direct comparison without Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507's cutoff date.
May 2024
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Provider Availability
o3 is available from OpenAI. Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 is available from Fireworks, Novita.
o3
Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507
Outputs Comparison
Key Takeaways
o3
View detailsOpenAI
Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507
View detailsAlibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
o3
Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507Detailed Comparison
Interactive Arena
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against o3 and Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
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FAQ
Common questions about o3 vs Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507.