Model Comparison

o4-mini vs QwQ-32BWhich is better in 2026?

o4-mini significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: o4-mini vs QwQ-32B — which is better?

o4-mini (by OpenAI) and QwQ-32B (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 2 benchmarks (AIME 2024, GPQA), while QwQ-32B 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 2 of 2 shared benchmarks
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Apr 2025

Choose QwQ-32B if…

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

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

2 benchmarks

o4-mini outperforms in 2 benchmarks (AIME 2024, GPQA), while QwQ-32B is better at 0 benchmarks.

o4-mini significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Tue Jul 21 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
QwQ-32B
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Tue Jul 21 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

o4-mini supports multimodal inputs, whereas QwQ-32B 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

QwQ-32B

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

o4-mini is licensed under a proprietary license, while QwQ-32B 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

QwQ-32B

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

o4-mini was released on 2025-04-16, while QwQ-32B was released on 2025-03-05.

o4-mini is 1 month newer than QwQ-32B.

o4-mini

Apr 16, 2025

1.3 years ago

1mo newer
QwQ-32B

Mar 5, 2025

1.4 years ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

o4-mini has a knowledge cutoff of 2024-05-31, while QwQ-32B has a cutoff of 2024-11-28.

QwQ-32B has more recent training data (up to 2024-11-28), making it potentially better informed about events through that date compared to o4-mini (2024-05-31).

o4-mini

May 2024

QwQ-32B

Nov 2024

6 mo newer

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

OpenAI
Larger context window (200,000 tokens)
Supports multimodal inputs
Higher AIME 2024 score (93.4% vs 79.5%)
Higher GPQA score (81.4% vs 65.2%)
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

QwQ-32B

View details

Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team

Has open weights
OpenAIo4-mini
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen TeamQwQ-32B
Compare in Playground

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

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

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

FAQ

Common questions about o4-mini vs QwQ-32B.

Which is better, o4-mini or QwQ-32B?

o4-mini significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. o4-mini is made by OpenAI and QwQ-32B 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 QwQ-32B in benchmarks?

o4-mini scores AIME 2024: 93.4%, AIME 2025: 92.7%, MathVista: 84.3%, MMMU: 81.6%, GPQA: 81.4%. QwQ-32B scores MATH-500: 90.6%, IFEval: 83.9%, AIME 2024: 79.5%, LiveBench: 73.1%, BFCL: 66.4%.

What are the context window sizes for o4-mini and QwQ-32B?

o4-mini supports 200K tokens and QwQ-32B 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 QwQ-32B?

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 QwQ-32B?

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

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