Qwen3-VL 235B vs GPT-4.1 mini
Qwen3-VL 235B is an open-weight chat model you can call on this endpoint; GPT-4.1 mini is a closed model from OpenAI. Below: what each costs for three realistic workloads, the limits that apply, and when to choose which.
OpenAI figures are public list prices and documented limits, checked 2026-09-16 against the provider page. Inference APIs prices are read live from the price list.
- Cost: Qwen3-VL 235B is cheaper in all three workloads, by 29–34%.
- Limits: OpenAI: Rate limits scale with cumulative spend through usage tiers 1–5. Here: no per-minute or per-day caps.
Side by side
| Qwen3-VL 235B | GPT-4.1 mini | |
|---|---|---|
| Served by | Inference APIs | OpenAI |
| Model author | Alibaba Qwen | OpenAI |
| Model id | Qwen/Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct | gpt-4.1-mini |
| Input price | $0.26 / 1M tokens | $0.40 / 1M tokens |
| Output price | $1.15 / 1M tokens | $1.60 / 1M tokens |
| Context window | 262K tokens | 1M tokens |
| Capabilities | Vision, OCR, Chat, Tool calling, JSON mode | Chat, Vision, Tool calling, JSON mode |
| Weights | Open | Closed |
| Status | Available | Available |
| Limits | No per-minute or per-day request or token caps; usage draws on a prepaid balance | Rate limits scale with cumulative spend through usage tiers 1–5. |
| Time to first token | 1.28 s | not measured by us |
| Output speed | 10.7 tokens / s | not measured by us |
What three workloads cost
List prices applied to the same work. The cheaper side of each row is in bold.
| Workload | Qwen3-VL 235B | GPT-4.1 mini | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chat assistant — 10,000 turns of 800 tokens in, 300 out | $5.53 | $8.00 | 31% |
| Long prompts or RAG — 10,000 requests of 8,000 in, 500 out | $26.55 | $40.00 | 34% |
| Generation-heavy — 10,000 requests of 500 in, 2,000 out | $24.30 | $34.00 | 29% |
Qwen3-VL 235B is cheaper in all three workloads, by 29–34%.
When to choose which
- Cost is the deciding factor; it is cheaper in every workload above
- You want open weights: the same model can be moved to another host or self-hosted later
- Reading screenshots, invoices, receipts and scanned pages into text or JSON
- Agents that need to look at an image and then call a tool
- You want open weights, or the option to move the same model to another host
- You need more than 262K tokens of context (it takes 1M)
- You need image input together with a 1M-token context
Price, context and speed are measurable; answer quality on your task is not something a table can settle. Both take the same request, so the honest test is to run your own prompts through each.
Measured speed
Medians of three streamed runs on 2026-09-17, public endpoint, a prompt that asks for about 120 words. Time to first token is the first token of any kind, reasoning included; output speed counts every generated token from that point. Reasoning models then think before the visible answer starts: Qwen3-VL 235B began answering after 1.28 s at default settings, which you can shorten with the reasoning controls on each model page. Expect ±30% with time of day. We did not measure OpenAI and do not quote other people's numbers; read "not measured" as unknown, not slow. Method and raw numbers: speed measurements.
Switching from OpenAI
Both speak the OpenAI wire format. The edit is the base URL, the key and the model id; then re-run your own prompts, because it is a different model.
import os
from openai import OpenAI
# before: OpenAI
# client = OpenAI(base_url="https://api.openai.com/v1", api_key=os.environ["OPENAI_API_KEY"])
# MODEL = "gpt-4.1-mini"
# after: Inference APIs
client = OpenAI(base_url="https://api.inferenceapis.com/v1", api_key=os.environ["INFERENCE_API_KEY"])
MODEL = "Qwen/Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct"
resp = client.chat.completions.create(model=MODEL, messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello"}], max_tokens=500)More detail, including Node, LangChain and LiteLLM: switching OpenAI-compatible providers.
FAQ
Which is cheaper, Qwen3-VL 235B or GPT-4.1 mini?
Qwen3-VL 235B is cheaper in all three workloads, by 29–34%. The table above uses list prices: Qwen3-VL 235B $0.26 / 1M tokens input, $1.15 / 1M tokens output; GPT-4.1 mini $0.40 / 1M tokens input, $1.60 / 1M tokens output.
Can I switch from GPT-4.1 mini to Qwen3-VL 235B without rewriting code?
Yes, if you call it through an OpenAI-compatible client. Change the base URL to https://api.inferenceapis.com/v1, swap the API key, and set the model to Qwen/Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct. Because it is a different model, re-run your prompts and evaluations before moving production traffic.
What limits apply to GPT-4.1 mini?
Rate limits scale with cumulative spend through usage tiers 1–5. On Inference APIs there are no per-minute or per-day request or token caps; usage draws on a prepaid balance.
Spotted a price or limit that has changed? Tell us and we will re-check the provider page.