Model Comparison

o4-mini vs Qwen2.5 32B InstructWhich is better in 2026?

o4-mini significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: o4-mini vs Qwen2.5 32B Instruct — which is better?

o4-mini (by OpenAI) and Qwen2.5 32B Instruct (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.

o4-mini outperforms in 1 benchmarks (GPQA), while Qwen2.5 32B Instruct is better at 0 benchmarks. o4-mini significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose o4-mini if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 1 of 1 shared benchmarks
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Apr 2025

Choose Qwen2.5 32B Instruct if…

  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

1 benchmarks

o4-mini outperforms in 1 benchmarks (GPQA), while Qwen2.5 32B Instruct is better at 0 benchmarks.

o4-mini significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Mon Jul 27 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only o4-mini specifies input context (200,000 tokens). Only o4-mini specifies output context (100,000 tokens).

OpenAI
o4-mini
Input200,000 tokens
Output100,000 tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen2.5 32B Instruct
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Mon Jul 27 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

o4-mini supports multimodal inputs, whereas Qwen2.5 32B Instruct does not.

o4-mini can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

o4-mini

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Qwen2.5 32B Instruct

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

o4-mini is licensed under a proprietary license, while Qwen2.5 32B Instruct uses Apache 2.0.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

o4-mini

Proprietary

Closed source

Qwen2.5 32B Instruct

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

o4-mini was released on 2025-04-16, while Qwen2.5 32B Instruct was released on 2024-09-19.

o4-mini is 7 months newer than Qwen2.5 32B Instruct.

o4-mini

Apr 16, 2025

1.3 years ago

6mo newer
Qwen2.5 32B Instruct

Sep 19, 2024

1.8 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

o4-mini has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-05-31, while Qwen2.5 32B Instruct's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm o4-mini's training data extends to 2024-05-31, but cannot make a direct comparison without Qwen2.5 32B Instruct's cutoff date.

o4-mini

May 2024

Qwen2.5 32B Instruct

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion

Key Takeaways

Larger context window (200,000 tokens)
Supports multimodal inputs
Higher GPQA score (81.4% vs 49.5%)
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Qwen2.5 32B Instruct

View details

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Has open weights
OpenAIo4-mini
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen TeamQwen2.5 32B Instruct

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against o4-mini and Qwen2.5 32B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

o4-mini
✓ Preferred
Qwen2.5 32B Instruct
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
OpenAI
o4-mini
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen2.5 32B Instruct

FAQ

Common questions about o4-mini vs Qwen2.5 32B Instruct.

Which is better, o4-mini or Qwen2.5 32B Instruct?

o4-mini significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. o4-mini is made by OpenAI and Qwen2.5 32B Instruct is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does o4-mini compare to Qwen2.5 32B Instruct in benchmarks?

o4-mini scores AIME 2024: 93.4%, AIME 2025: 92.7%, MathVista: 84.3%, MMMU: 81.6%, GPQA: 81.4%. Qwen2.5 32B Instruct scores GSM8k: 95.9%, HumanEval: 88.4%, HellaSwag: 85.2%, BBH: 84.5%, MBPP: 84.0%.

What are the context window sizes for o4-mini and Qwen2.5 32B Instruct?

o4-mini supports 200K tokens and Qwen2.5 32B Instruct supports an unknown number of tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between o4-mini and Qwen2.5 32B Instruct?

Key differences include multimodal support (yes vs no), licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes o4-mini and Qwen2.5 32B Instruct?

o4-mini is developed by OpenAI and Qwen2.5 32B Instruct is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.