GPT-5 mini (High) vs Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5 mini (High) by OpenAI or Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) scores 1.6 points higher (18.4 vs 16.8) but costs 5.0× as much to run the benchmark ($941 vs $189; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) when you need intelligence above 16.8, and GPT-5 mini (High) when 16.8 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-5 mini (High) | Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 16.8 | 18.4 | +9.5% Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Re… is 9.5% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $188.66 | $940.97 | +398.8% Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Re… is 5.0× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 67.32s | 64.71s | −3.9% Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Re… is 3.9% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.25 / $2.00 | $0.60 / $3.60 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) vs GPT-5 mini (High): 9.5% more intelligence, 398.8% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 3.9% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5 mini (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Haiku 5.5 (Xhigh) scores 41.20 for $158.
- Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
GPT-5 mini (High)Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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