Model comparison
GPT-4.1 mini vs Qwen3.6-35B-A3B
Head-to-head evidence from 19 shared benchmark results across 6 categories. Overall scores shown here use the public BenchAlign v5 ranking lane.
Verified leaderboard positions: GPT-4.1 mini unranked; Qwen3.6-35B-A3B #31
BenchAlign evidence: GPT-4.1 mini estimated; Qwen3.6-35B-A3B estimated. Intervals and evidence labels describe ranking uncertainty, not a guarantee for a specific workload.
Evidence parity. GPT-4.1 mini and Qwen3.6-35B-A3B share 19 comparable benchmark results. 3 of 8 categories are comparable. 4 results are unique to GPT-4.1 mini; 39 to Qwen3.6-35B-A3B.
Updated July 15, 2026- Shared results
- 19
- GPT-4.1 mini only
- 4
- Qwen3.6-35B-A3B only
- 39
- Comparable categories
- 3 / 8
Pick Qwen3.6-35B-A3B if you want the stronger benchmark profile. GPT-4.1 mini only becomes the better choice if knowledge is the priority or you need the larger 1M context window.
Confidence note. This is a partial-evidence comparison with 19 shared benchmark results across 6 evidence categories; 3 of 8 categories currently have scoreable aggregates for both models. Treat the verdict as directional until coverage is more balanced.
Why this result
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B is clearly ahead on the provisional aggregate, 59 to 42. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B's sharpest advantage is in mathematics, where it averages 88.2 against 4.5. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is SWE-bench Verified, 23.6% to 73.4%. GPT-4.1 mini does hit back in knowledge, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.
Qwen3.6-35B-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 Qwen3.6-35B-A3B.
Category breakdown
Exact category averages are shown below. Not measured means BenchLM does not have enough sourced public coverage for that model and category.
| Category | GPT-4.1 mini | Δ | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|---|
| Math | GPT-4.1 mini4.5 | Margin→ 83.7 | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B88.2 |
| Coding | GPT-4.1 mini23.6 | Margin→ 50.2 | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B73.8 |
| Knowledge | GPT-4.1 mini64.2 | Margin← 12.4 | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B51.8 |
| Agentic | GPT-4.1 miniNot measured | MarginNo overlap | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B51.5 |
| Multimodal | GPT-4.1 miniNot measured | MarginNo overlap | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B76.3 |
| Inst. Following | GPT-4.1 mini88.5 | MarginNo overlap | Qwen3.6-35B-A3BNot measured |
Decisive benchmark drivers
The largest measured benchmark gaps in this matchup, with exact reported values.
More
- Source ↗
SWE-bench Verified
CodingA 23.6%B 73.4%Winner: Qwen3.6-35B-A3BΔ 49.8SWE-bench Verified: GPT-4.1 mini scored 23.6%; Qwen3.6-35B-A3B scored 73.4%. Qwen3.6-35B-A3B wins this benchmark. - Source ↗
GPQA
KnowledgeA 64.2%B 86%Winner: Qwen3.6-35B-A3BΔ 21.8GPQA: GPT-4.1 mini scored 64.2%; Qwen3.6-35B-A3B scored 86%. Qwen3.6-35B-A3B wins this benchmark.
Operational comparison
Runtime and commercial metrics are compared only when both models have a complete sourced value.
| Metric | GPT-4.1 mini | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B | Comparison |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input / output priceUSD per 1M tokens | GPT-4.1 mini$0.4 input / $1.6 output | Qwen3.6-35B-A3BNot available | A complete price comparison is not available. |
| Generation speedtokens per second | GPT-4.1 mini80 tok/s | Qwen3.6-35B-A3BNot available | A complete speed comparison is not available. |
| First-answer latencyseconds to first token | GPT-4.1 mini0.76 s | Qwen3.6-35B-A3BNot available | A complete latency comparison is not available. |
| Context windowmaximum listed tokens | GPT-4.1 mini1M | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B262K | GPT-4.1 mini lists the larger context window. |
Benchmark Deep Dive
Agentic15 benchmarks
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic IndexSource | 1.7% | 21.4% | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B leads |
| τ²-bench resultsSource | 52.9% | 95.3% | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B leads |
| GDPval-AASource | 0.1% | 27.4% | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B leads |
| GDPval-AASource | 503 | 1049 | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B leads |
| Terminal-Bench 2.0Source | — | 51.5% | Not comparable |
| Claw-EvalSource | — | 68.7% | Not comparable |
| QwenClawBenchSource | — | 52.6% | Not comparable |
| QwenWebBenchSource | — | 1397 | Not comparable |
| τ³-bench resultsSource | — | 67.2% | Not comparable |
| VITA-BenchSource | — | 35.6% | Not comparable |
| DeepPlanningSource | — | 25.9% | Not comparable |
| ToolathlonSource | — | 26.9% | Not comparable |
| MCP AtlasSource | — | 62.8% | Not comparable |
| WideResearchSource | — | 60.1% | Not comparable |
| Gert LabsSource | — | 42.65% | Not comparable |
CodingQwen3.6-35B-A3B wins9 benchmarks
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench VerifiedSource | 23.6% | 73.4% | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B leads |
| AA Coding IndexSource | 20.2% | 41.9% | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B leads |
| Terminal-Bench HardSource | 7.6% | 34.8% | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B leads |
| AA-SciCodeSource | 40.4% | 35.8% | GPT-4.1 mini leads |
| SWE MultilingualSource | — | 67.2% | Not comparable |
| SWE-bench ProSource | — | 49.5% | Not comparable |
| Terminal-Bench 2.0Source | — | 51.5% | Not comparable |
| LiveCodeBenchSource | — | 80.4% | Not comparable |
| NL2RepoSource | — | 29.4% | Not comparable |
Reasoning2 benchmarks
KnowledgeGPT-4.1 mini wins12 benchmarks
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLUSource | 87.5% | — | Not comparable |
| GPQASource | 64.2% | 86% | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B leads |
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexSource | 14.8% | 31.6% | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B leads |
| AA-GPQA DiamondSource | 66.4% | 84.1% | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B leads |
| AA-HLESource | 4.6% | 20.2% | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B leads |
| AA-Omniscience IndexSource | -50.1% | -21.4% | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B leads |
| AA-Omniscience AccuracySource | 17.5% | 18.9% | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B leads |
| AA-Omniscience Hallucination RateSource | 82.0% | 49.7% | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B leads |
| MMLU-ProSource | — | 85.2% | Not comparable |
| SuperGPQASource | — | 64.7% | Not comparable |
| C-EvalSource | — | 90% | Not comparable |
| HLESource | — | 21.4% | Not comparable |
MathQwen3.6-35B-A3B wins6 benchmarks
Multimodal16 benchmarks
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA-MMMU-ProSource | 58.7% | 75.0% | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B leads |
| Design Arena WebsiteSource | 1032 | — | Not comparable |
| MMMUSource | — | 81.7% | Not comparable |
| MMMU-ProSource | — | 75.3% | Not comparable |
| RealWorldQASource | — | 85.3% | Not comparable |
| OmniDocBench 1.5Source | — | 89.9% | Not comparable |
| CharXivSource | — | 78% | Not comparable |
| SimpleVQASource | — | 58.9% | Not comparable |
| CC-OCRSource | — | 81.9% | Not comparable |
| AI2D_TESTSource | — | 92.7% | Not comparable |
| RefCOCO (avg)Source | — | 92.0% | Not comparable |
| ODINW13Source | — | 50.8% | Not comparable |
| Video-MME (with subtitle)Source | — | 86.6% | Not comparable |
| Video-MME (w/o subtitle)Source | — | 82.5% | Not comparable |
| VideoMMMUSource | — | 83.7% | Not comparable |
| MLVU (M-Avg)Source | — | 86.2% | Not comparable |
Frequently Asked Questions (4)
Which is better, GPT-4.1 mini or Qwen3.6-35B-A3B?
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B is ahead on BenchLM's provisional leaderboard, 59 to 42. The biggest single separator in this matchup is SWE-bench Verified, where the scores are 23.6% and 73.4%.
Which is better for knowledge tasks, GPT-4.1 mini or Qwen3.6-35B-A3B?
GPT-4.1 mini has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 64.2 versus 51.8. Inside this category, AA-Omniscience Hallucination Rate is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Which is better for coding, GPT-4.1 mini or Qwen3.6-35B-A3B?
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 73.8 versus 23.6. Inside this category, SWE-bench Verified is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Which is better for math, GPT-4.1 mini or Qwen3.6-35B-A3B?
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 88.2 versus 4.5. GPT-4.1 mini stays close enough that the answer can still flip depending on your workload.
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