o4-mini vs Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct
o4-mini and Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct are closely matched at 27.4 and 21.0 on the LLM Stats Score. Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct is 4.1x cheaper per token.
OpenAI · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
o4-mini and Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 27.4 and 21.0.
In the 4 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct wins 3; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
On price, Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct is roughly 4.1x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct also accepts a larger context window (262,144 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose o4-mini
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Apr 2025
Choose Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 3 of 4 exact shared results
- cost matters — it's about 4.1x cheaper per token
- you process long inputs — it offers a 262,144 token context window
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
14 reported for o4-mini · 10 for Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct
o4-mini outperforms in 1 benchmarks (Aider-Polyglot), while Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct is better at 3 benchmarks (SWE-Bench Verified, TAU-bench Airline, TAU-bench Retail).
Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, o4-mini ($1.10/1M tokens) is 3.7x more expensive than Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct ($0.30/1M tokens).
For output processing, o4-mini ($4.40/1M tokens) is 4.4x more expensive than Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct ($1.00/1M tokens).
In conclusion, o4-mini is more expensive than Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct accepts 262,144 input tokens compared to o4-mini's 200,000 tokens. Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct can generate longer responses up to 262,144 tokens, while o4-mini is limited to 100,000 tokens.
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
o4-mini supports multimodal inputs, whereas Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct does not.
o4-mini can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
o4-mini
Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct
License
Usage and distribution terms
o4-mini is licensed under a proprietary license, while Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct 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
o4-mini was released on 2025-04-16, while Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct was released on 2025-01-31.
o4-mini is 3 months newer than Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct.
Apr 16, 2025
1.5 years ago
2mo newerJan 31, 2025
1.7 years ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
o4-mini has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-05-31, while Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B 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 Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct's cutoff date.
May 2024
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Provider Availability
o4-mini is available from OpenAI. Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct is available from DeepInfra.
o4-mini
Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against o4-mini and Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about o4-mini vs Qwen3-Coder 480B A35B Instruct.