OpenAI o4-mini vs Qwen 3 Coder
Performance benchmarks + pricing comparison — updated April 2026
OpenAI o4-mini
OpenAIUpdated mini reasoning model. Similar pricing to o3-mini with updated capabilities.
| Input | $1.10/M |
| Output | $4.40/M |
| Context | 200K tokens |
| Best For | General reasoning, coding tasks |
| Benchmark | 72/100 |
Qwen 3 Coder
QwenLatest Qwen coding-specialized model. Strong performance on HumanEval and competitive programming benchmarks.
| Input | $0.500/M |
| Output | $2.00/M |
| Context | 256K tokens |
| Best For | Code generation, competitive programming, Chinese/English bilingual coding |
Cost Comparison by Scenario
Estimated cost per project with 30% cache hit rate. Actual costs may vary based on usage patterns.
| Scenario | OpenAI o4-mini | Qwen 3 Coder | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small Script (1K lines) | $0.17 | $0.08 | Qwen 3 Coder saves $0.09 (55%) |
| Medium Feature (10K lines) | $1.27 | $0.57 | Qwen 3 Coder saves $0.69 (55%) |
| Large Project (50K lines) | $6.33 | $2.88 | Qwen 3 Coder saves $3.45 (55%) |
| Code Review (5K lines) | $0.30 | $0.14 | Qwen 3 Coder saves $0.16 (55%) |
Verdict
Qwen 3 Coder wins on both price and performance — $0.500/M input with a benchmark score of N/A/100.
For most developers, this is the clear choice between these two models.
Compare with Other Models
Claude Sonnet 4
AnthropicAnthropic's balanced model for coding and general tasks. Best price-performance ratio in the Claude family.
Claude Opus 4
AnthropicAnthropic's most powerful model. Best for complex reasoning and challenging coding tasks.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
AnthropicPrevious generation Sonnet. Still excellent for coding tasks at the same price point.
Claude 3.5 Haiku
AnthropicFast, cost-effective model for high-volume tasks. Great for code review and simple queries.
Claude 3 Opus
AnthropicFirst generation Opus. Highest reasoning capability in the Claude 3 family.
Claude 3 Sonnet
AnthropicFirst generation Sonnet. Balanced performance for general tasks.