GPT-4.1 mini vs Qwen3.5-35B-A3B

Side-by-side benchmark comparison across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, and math workflows.

Agentic
Coding
Multimodal & Grounded
Reasoning
Knowledge
Instruction Following
Multilingual
Mathematics

GPT-4.1 mini· Qwen3.5-35B-A3B

Quick Verdict

Pick Qwen3.5-35B-A3B if you want the stronger benchmark profile. GPT-4.1 mini only becomes the better choice if reasoning is the priority or you need the larger 1M context window.

Qwen3.5-35B-A3B is clearly ahead on the aggregate, 67 to 56. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

Qwen3.5-35B-A3B's sharpest advantage is in coding, where it averages 72.6 against 27.6. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is SWE-bench Verified, 23.6% to 69.2%. GPT-4.1 mini does hit back in reasoning, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.

GPT-4.1 mini is also the more expensive model on tokens at $0.40 input / $1.60 output per 1M tokens, versus $0.00 input / $0.00 output per 1M tokens for Qwen3.5-35B-A3B. That is roughly Infinityx on output cost alone. Qwen3.5-35B-A3B is the reasoning model in the pair, while GPT-4.1 mini is not. That usually helps on harder chain-of-thought-heavy tests, but it can also mean more latency and more token spend in real use. GPT-4.1 mini gives you the larger context window at 1M, compared with 262K for Qwen3.5-35B-A3B.

Operational tradeoffs

Price$0.40 / $1.60Free*
Speed80 t/sN/A
TTFT0.76sN/A
Context1M262K

Decision framing

BenchLM keeps the benchmark table and the operator tradeoffs on the same page so a better score does not hide a materially slower, pricier, or smaller-context model.

Runtime metrics show N/A when BenchLM does not have a sourced snapshot for that exact model. The scoring rules and freshness policy are documented on the methodology page.

BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniQwen3.5-35B-A3B
AgenticGPT-4.1 mini wins
Terminal-Bench 2.054%40.5%
BrowseComp71%61%
OSWorld-Verified49%54.5%
tau2-bench81.2%
CodingQwen3.5-35B-A3B wins
SWE-bench Verified23.6%69.2%
SWE-bench Pro30%
LiveCodeBench74.6%
Multimodal & GroundedQwen3.5-35B-A3B wins
MMMU-Pro66%75.1%
OfficeQA Pro74%
ReasoningGPT-4.1 mini wins
LongBench v280%59%
MRCRv282%
KnowledgeQwen3.5-35B-A3B wins
MMLU87.5%
GPQA64.2%84.2%
FrontierScience61%
MMLU-Pro85.3%
SuperGPQA63.4%
Instruction FollowingQwen3.5-35B-A3B wins
IFEval88.5%91.9%
MultilingualQwen3.5-35B-A3B wins
MMLU-ProX72%81%
Mathematics
AIME 202423.1%
Frequently Asked Questions (8)

Which is better, GPT-4.1 mini or Qwen3.5-35B-A3B?

Qwen3.5-35B-A3B is ahead overall, 67 to 56. The biggest single separator in this matchup is SWE-bench Verified, where the scores are 23.6% and 69.2%.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, GPT-4.1 mini or Qwen3.5-35B-A3B?

Qwen3.5-35B-A3B has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 79.3 versus 62.3. Inside this category, GPQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, GPT-4.1 mini or Qwen3.5-35B-A3B?

Qwen3.5-35B-A3B has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 72.6 versus 27.6. Inside this category, SWE-bench Verified is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for reasoning, GPT-4.1 mini or Qwen3.5-35B-A3B?

GPT-4.1 mini has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 80.9 versus 59. Inside this category, LongBench v2 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for agentic tasks, GPT-4.1 mini or Qwen3.5-35B-A3B?

GPT-4.1 mini has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 56.5 versus 50.5. Inside this category, Terminal-Bench 2.0 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multimodal and grounded tasks, GPT-4.1 mini or Qwen3.5-35B-A3B?

Qwen3.5-35B-A3B has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 75.1 versus 69.6. Inside this category, MMMU-Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for instruction following, GPT-4.1 mini or Qwen3.5-35B-A3B?

Qwen3.5-35B-A3B has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 91.9 versus 88.5. Inside this category, IFEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multilingual tasks, GPT-4.1 mini or Qwen3.5-35B-A3B?

Qwen3.5-35B-A3B has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 81 versus 72. Inside this category, MMLU-ProX is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 31, 2026

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