Model comparison
GPT-4.1 vs Qwen3.6-35B-A3B
Head-to-head evidence from 16 shared benchmark results across 6 categories. Overall scores shown here use the public BenchAlign v5 ranking lane.
Verified leaderboard positions: GPT-4.1 unranked; Qwen3.6-35B-A3B #31
BenchAlign evidence: GPT-4.1 supported; Qwen3.6-35B-A3B estimated. Intervals and evidence labels describe ranking uncertainty, not a guarantee for a specific workload.
Evidence parity. GPT-4.1 and Qwen3.6-35B-A3B share 16 comparable benchmark results. 3 of 8 categories are comparable. 5 results are unique to GPT-4.1; 42 to Qwen3.6-35B-A3B.
Updated July 15, 2026- Shared results
- 16
- GPT-4.1 only
- 5
- Qwen3.6-35B-A3B only
- 42
- Comparable categories
- 3 / 8
Pick Qwen3.6-35B-A3B if you want the stronger benchmark profile. GPT-4.1 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 16 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 has the cleaner provisional overall profile here, landing at 59 versus 56. It is a real lead, but still close enough that category-level strengths matter more than the headline number.
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B's sharpest advantage is in mathematics, where it averages 88.2 against 4.1. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is GPQA, 66.3% to 86%. GPT-4.1 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 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 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 | Δ | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|---|
| Math | GPT-4.14.1 | Margin→ 84.1 | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B88.2 |
| Coding | GPT-4.154.6 | Margin→ 19.2 | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B73.8 |
| Knowledge | GPT-4.166.3 | Margin← 14.5 | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B51.8 |
| Agentic | GPT-4.1Not measured | MarginNo overlap | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B51.5 |
| Multimodal | GPT-4.1Not measured | MarginNo overlap | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B76.3 |
| Inst. Following | GPT-4.187.4 | MarginNo overlap | Qwen3.6-35B-A3BNot measured |
Decisive benchmark drivers
The largest measured benchmark gaps in this matchup, with exact reported values.
More
- Source ↗
GPQA
KnowledgeA 66.3%B 86%Winner: Qwen3.6-35B-A3BΔ 19.7GPQA: GPT-4.1 scored 66.3%; Qwen3.6-35B-A3B scored 86%. Qwen3.6-35B-A3B wins this benchmark. - Source ↗
SWE-bench Verified
CodingA 54.6%B 73.4%Winner: Qwen3.6-35B-A3BΔ 18.8SWE-bench Verified: GPT-4.1 scored 54.6%; Qwen3.6-35B-A3B scored 73.4%. 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 | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B | Comparison |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input / output priceUSD per 1M tokens | GPT-4.1$2 input / $8 output | Qwen3.6-35B-A3BNot available | A complete price comparison is not available. |
| Generation speedtokens per second | GPT-4.1108 tok/s | Qwen3.6-35B-A3BNot available | A complete speed comparison is not available. |
| First-answer latencyseconds to first token | GPT-4.11.02 s | Qwen3.6-35B-A3BNot available | A complete latency comparison is not available. |
| Context windowmaximum listed tokens | GPT-4.11M | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B262K | GPT-4.1 lists the larger context window. |
Benchmark Deep Dive
Agentic15 benchmarks
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| τ²-bench resultsSource | 47.1% | 95.3% | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B leads |
| Gert LabsSource | 25.65% | 42.65% | 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 |
| AA Agentic IndexSource | — | 21.4% | Not comparable |
| GDPval-AASource | — | 27.4% | Not comparable |
| GDPval-AASource | — | 1049 | Not comparable |
CodingQwen3.6-35B-A3B wins9 benchmarks
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench VerifiedSource | 54.6% | 73.4% | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B leads |
| Terminal-Bench HardSource | 13.6% | 34.8% | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B leads |
| AA-SciCodeSource | 38.1% | 35.8% | GPT-4.1 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 |
| AA Coding IndexSource | — | 41.9% | Not comparable |
Reasoning2 benchmarks
KnowledgeGPT-4.1 wins12 benchmarks
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLUSource | 90.2% | — | Not comparable |
| GPQASource | 66.3% | 86% | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B leads |
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexSource | 19.4% | 31.6% | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B leads |
| AA-GPQA DiamondSource | 66.6% | 84.1% | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B leads |
| AA-HLESource | 4.6% | 20.2% | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B leads |
| AA-Omniscience IndexSource | -36.2% | -21.4% | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B leads |
| AA-Omniscience AccuracySource | 24.2% | 18.9% | GPT-4.1 leads |
| AA-Omniscience Hallucination RateSource | 79.6% | 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 wins7 benchmarks
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3)Source | 5.517% | — | Not comparable |
| FrontierMath v2 (Tier 4)Source | 0.000% | — | Not comparable |
| HMMT Feb 2025Source | — | 90.7% | Not comparable |
| HMMT Nov 2025Source | — | 89.1% | Not comparable |
| HMMT Feb 2026Source | — | 83.6% | Not comparable |
| MMAnswerBenchSource | — | 78.9% | Not comparable |
| AIME26Source | — | 92.7% | Not comparable |
Multimodal16 benchmarks
| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA-MMMU-ProSource | 61.2% | 75.0% | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B leads |
| Design Arena WebsiteSource | 1073 | — | 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 or Qwen3.6-35B-A3B?
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B is ahead on BenchLM's provisional leaderboard, 59 to 56. The biggest single separator in this matchup is GPQA, where the scores are 66.3% and 86%.
Which is better for knowledge tasks, GPT-4.1 or Qwen3.6-35B-A3B?
GPT-4.1 has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 66.3 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 or Qwen3.6-35B-A3B?
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 73.8 versus 54.6. Inside this category, Terminal-Bench Hard is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Which is better for math, GPT-4.1 or Qwen3.6-35B-A3B?
Qwen3.6-35B-A3B has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 88.2 versus 4.1. GPT-4.1 stays close enough that the answer can still flip depending on your workload.
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