AI model comparison
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs GPT-4.1 Nano
Pricing, context window, benchmarks, and features compared side by side. Or skip the guesswork and send one prompt to both.
Qwen3-VL-30B-A3B-Instruct is a multimodal model that unifies strong text generation with visual understanding for images and videos. Its Instruct variant optimizes instruction-following for general multimodal tasks.
- Input / 1M
- $0.15
- Output / 1M
- $0.60
- Context
- 262K
OpenAI
GPT-4.1 Nano
For tasks that demand low latency, GPT‑4.1 nano is the fastest and cheapest model in the GPT-4.1 series.
- Input / 1M
- $0.10
- Output / 1M
- $0.40
- Context
- 1.05M
At a glance
Quick verdict
How the two models stack up on the things people ask about most.
Lower price
GPT-4.1 Nano
1.5x cheaper for a typical chat
Higher intelligence score
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct
7.9 vs 7.8 on Artificial Analysis
Larger context window
GPT-4.1 Nano
1.05M vs 262K tokens
Newer release
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct
Released October 6, 2025
Benchmarks
Benchmark scores
Independent scores from Artificial Analysis. Higher is better.
Intelligence index
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct7.9GPT-4.1 Nano7.8Coding index
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B InstructNot availableGPT-4.1 Nano11.1Agentic index
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B InstructNot availableGPT-4.1 NanoNot availablePricing
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs GPT-4.1 Nano API pricing
Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.
| Metric | Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct | GPT-4.1 Nano |
|---|---|---|
| Input tokensPer 1M tokens | $0.15 | $0.10 |
| Output tokensPer 1M tokens | $0.60 | $0.40 |
| Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens | Not available | $0.03 |
| Cache writePer 1M tokens | Not available | Not available |
| Web searchPer request | Not available | $0.01 |
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
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct$0.60GPT-4.1 Nano$0.40Coding task
30K in, 4K out
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct$6.90GPT-4.1 Nano$4.60$2.35 cachedLong document summary
150K in, 2K out
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct$23.70GPT-4.1 Nano$15.80$4.55 cachedSpecs
Context window and capabilities
How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.
| Metric | Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct | GPT-4.1 Nano |
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 262K tokens | 1.05M tokens |
| Max output | 16K tokens | 33K tokens |
| Input types | Image, Text | File, Image, Text |
| Output types | Text | Text |
| Reasoning effort levels | Not available | Not available |
| Default reasoning effort | Not available | Not available |
| Release date | October 6, 2025 | April 14, 2025 |
Features
Supported features
API features available for each model.
| Metric | Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct | GPT-4.1 Nano |
|---|---|---|
| Tool calling | Supported | Supported |
| Structured outputs | Supported | Supported |
| JSON mode | Supported | Supported |
| Reasoning | Not supported | Not supported |
| Temperature | Supported | Supported |
| Stop sequences | Supported | Not supported |
| Deterministic seed | Supported | Supported |
| Verbosity control | Not supported | Not supported |
Keep exploring
More on these models
Other head-to-heads, the full model page, and the alternatives list for each model.
Qwen3 VL 30B A3B InstructView full model details- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs GPT-4o-mini
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Llama 3.3 70B Instruct
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Qwen3 Coder Next
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Qwen3 32B
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Thinking
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Qwen3 14B
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Solar Pro 3
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Sonar
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Qwen3 30B A3B
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Hermes 3 405B Instruct
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Hermes 3 70B Instruct
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Qwen2.5 Coder 32B Instruct
- Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct vs Saba
GPT-4.1 NanoView full model details- GPT-4.1 Nano vs Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite
- GPT-4.1 Nano vs GPT-6 Luna Pro
- GPT-4.1 Nano vs gpt-oss-120b
- GPT-4.1 Nano vs gpt-oss-20b
- GPT-4.1 Nano vs GPT-4o-mini
- GPT-4.1 Nano vs GPT-5 Nano
- GPT-4.1 Nano vs Gemma 3 27B
- GPT-4.1 Nano vs Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507
- GPT-4.1 Nano vs Llama 3.3 70B Instruct
- GPT-4.1 Nano vs Llama 4 Scout
- GPT-4.1 Nano vs Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B
- GPT-4.1 Nano vs Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
- GPT-4.1 Nano vs Solar Pro 3
- GPT-4.1 Nano vs Qwen3 30B A3B
- GPT-4.1 Nano vs Nova Lite 1.0
- GPT-4.1 Nano vs Llama 3.1 70B Instruct
- GPT-4.1 Nano vs Llama 3.2 3B Instruct
- GPT-4.1 Nano vs GPT-3.5 Turbo
Our take
GPT-4.1 Nano is 1.5x cheaper for a typical chat. Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (7.9 vs 7.8). GPT-4.1 Nano has the larger context window (1.05M vs 262K 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 VL 30B A3B Instruct or GPT-4.1 Nano cheaper?
GPT-4.1 Nano is cheaper for a typical chat (2K input tokens and 500 output tokens). GPT-4.1 Nano costs $0.10 per 1M input tokens and $0.40 per 1M output tokens, while Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct costs $0.15 per 1M input tokens and $0.60 per 1M output tokens.
Which has a bigger context window, Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct or GPT-4.1 Nano?
GPT-4.1 Nano supports up to 1.05M tokens of context, compared with 262K for Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct.
Is Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct smarter than GPT-4.1 Nano?
On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct scores 7.9 and GPT-4.1 Nano scores 7.8, putting Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct ahead. Benchmarks don't capture everything, so the best test is running your own prompts through both.
Can I use Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct and GPT-4.1 Nano at the same time?
Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to multiple models at once, so you can see Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct and GPT-4.1 Nano answer side by side and keep the better response.
Why choose? Ask both.
Send one prompt to Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct and GPT-4.1 Nano at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.