AI model comparison

Qwen3 30B A3B vs GPT-4o-mini

Pricing, context window, benchmarks, and features compared side by side. Or skip the guesswork and send one prompt to both.

Qwen3, the latest generation in the Qwen large language model series, features both dense and mixture-of-experts (MoE) architectures to excel in reasoning, multilingual support, and advanced agent tasks.

Input / 1M
$0.12
Output / 1M
$0.50
Context
41K

GPT-4o mini is OpenAI's newest model after [GPT-4 Omni](/models/openai/gpt-4o), supporting both text and image inputs with text outputs.

Input / 1M
$0.15
Output / 1M
$0.60
Context
128K

At a glance

Quick verdict

How the two models stack up on the things people ask about most.

Lower price

qwen logo

Qwen3 30B A3B

1.2x cheaper for a typical chat

Higher intelligence score

qwen logo

Qwen3 30B A3B

7.6 vs 6.7 on Artificial Analysis

Larger context window

openai logo

GPT-4o-mini

128K vs 41K tokens

Newer release

qwen logo

Qwen3 30B A3B

Released April 28, 2025

Benchmarks

Benchmark scores

Independent scores from Artificial Analysis. Higher is better.

Intelligence index

qwen logoQwen3 30B A3B7.6
openai logoGPT-4o-mini6.7

Coding index

qwen logoQwen3 30B A3BNot available
openai logoGPT-4o-mini11.4

Agentic index

qwen logoQwen3 30B A3BNot available
openai logoGPT-4o-miniNot available

Pricing

Qwen3 30B A3B vs GPT-4o-mini API pricing

Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.

Metricqwen logoQwen3 30B A3Bopenai logoGPT-4o-mini
Input tokensPer 1M tokens$0.12$0.15
Output tokensPer 1M tokens$0.50$0.60
Cached input (read)Per 1M tokensNot available$0.08
Cache writePer 1M tokensNot availableNot available

What it costs in practice

Estimated cost per 1,000 requests at standard rates. Coding and long-document figures also show the cost when the input is already cached.

Chat message

2K in, 500 out

qwen logoQwen3 30B A3B$0.49
openai logoGPT-4o-mini$0.60

Coding task

30K in, 4K out

qwen logoQwen3 30B A3B$5.60
openai logoGPT-4o-mini$6.90$4.65 cached

Long document summary

150K in, 2K out

qwen logoQwen3 30B A3B$19
openai logoGPT-4o-mini$23.70$12.45 cached

Specs

Context window and capabilities

How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.

Metricqwen logoQwen3 30B A3Bopenai logoGPT-4o-mini
Context window41K tokens128K tokens
Max output16K tokens16K tokens
Input typesTextFile, Image, Text
Output typesTextText
Reasoning effort levelsNot availableNot available
Default reasoning effortNot availableNot available
Release dateApril 28, 2025July 18, 2024

Features

Supported features

API features available for each model.

Metricqwen logoQwen3 30B A3Bopenai logoGPT-4o-mini
Tool callingSupportedSupported
Structured outputsSupportedSupported
JSON modeSupportedSupported
ReasoningSupportedNot supported
TemperatureSupportedSupported
Stop sequencesSupportedSupported
Deterministic seedSupportedSupported
Verbosity controlNot supportedNot supported

Our take

Qwen3 30B A3B is 1.2x cheaper for a typical chat. Qwen3 30B A3B scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (7.6 vs 6.7). GPT-4o-mini has the larger context window (128K vs 41K tokens). The right pick depends on your workload, so the quickest way to settle it is to send the same prompt to both and compare.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Is Qwen3 30B A3B or GPT-4o-mini cheaper?

Qwen3 30B A3B is cheaper for a typical chat (2K input tokens and 500 output tokens). Qwen3 30B A3B costs $0.12 per 1M input tokens and $0.50 per 1M output tokens, while GPT-4o-mini costs $0.15 per 1M input tokens and $0.60 per 1M output tokens.

Which has a bigger context window, Qwen3 30B A3B or GPT-4o-mini?

GPT-4o-mini supports up to 128K tokens of context, compared with 41K for Qwen3 30B A3B.

Is Qwen3 30B A3B smarter than GPT-4o-mini?

On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Qwen3 30B A3B scores 7.6 and GPT-4o-mini scores 6.7, putting Qwen3 30B A3B ahead. Benchmarks don't capture everything, so the best test is running your own prompts through both.

Can I use Qwen3 30B A3B and GPT-4o-mini at the same time?

Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to multiple models at once, so you can see Qwen3 30B A3B and GPT-4o-mini answer side by side and keep the better response.

qwen logoopenai logo

Why choose? Ask both.

Send one prompt to Qwen3 30B A3B and GPT-4o-mini at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.