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GPT-5 mini vs Qwen3-72B

A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.

Updated

GPT-5 mini specs · Qwen3-72B specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceGPT-5 mini

    GPT-5 mini publishes pricing ($2.00 / 1M output tokens) while Qwen3-72B does not.

  • Context windowGPT-5 mini

    GPT-5 mini accepts 400K tokens vs 128K, 3.1× the room for long documents and codebases.

  • BenchmarksTie

    No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores.

  • ModalitiesGPT-5 mini

    GPT-5 mini supports 3 modalities (text, vision, audio) vs 1 for Qwen3-72B.

  • OpennessQwen3-72B

    Qwen3-72B ships open weights (Apache-2.0); GPT-5 mini is API-only.

On balance GPT-5 mini edges ahead, winning 3 of 5 categories against Qwen3-72B's 1. GPT-5 mini publishes pricing ($2.00 / 1M output tokens) while Qwen3-72B does not. GPT-5 mini accepts 400K tokens vs 128K, 3.1× the room for long documents and codebases.

No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores. They differ in modality coverage, GPT-5 mini handles text, vision, audio while Qwen3-72B handles text, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Qwen3-72B ships open weights (Apache-2.0); GPT-5 mini is API-only.

GPT-5 mini is the newer of the two, released 3 months after Qwen3-72B, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. GPT-5 mini is usually picked for code completion and customer support workloads, while Qwen3-72B sees more deployments in open source llm and commercial use llm. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecGPT-5 miniQwen3-72B
ProviderOpenAIAlibaba
ReleasedAug 2025Apr 2025
Modalitiestext, vision, audiotext
Context window400K tokens128K tokens
Max output128K tokens,
Input · 1M$0.25 / 1M tokensPricing not published
Output · 1M$2.00 / 1M tokensPricing not published
Knowledge cutoff2024-09,
Open weightsNoYes (Apache-2.0)
API availableYesYes

Pricing at scale

What you'd actually pay at typical workloads. Numbers come from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day$3.75 vs ,
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day$37.50 vs ,
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day$49.50 vs ,

Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates).

Price calculator

Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.

  • GPT-5 mini$0.125
  • Qwen3-72BPricing unavailable

Benchmarks compared

Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.

GPT-5 miniQwen3-72B
  • MMLU,84.0
Pick GPT-5 mini if

GPT-5 mini fits when…

  • Excellent price-quality ratio for production workloads
  • Fast first-token latency
  • Same tool-use API surface as flagship
  • Long-context tasks, handles 400K tokens vs 128K for Qwen3-72B.
  • Multimodal needs covering vision, audio.
Pick Qwen3-72B if

Qwen3-72B fits when…

  • Apache-2.0 license
  • Strongest open-weight on Chinese
  • Strong multilingual coverage
  • Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (Apache-2.0).
Don't want either?

Consider GPT-5.5

OpenAI's mid-cycle GPT-5 refresh, improved reasoning, tool use, and multimodal grounding over the 2025 launch.

See GPT-5.5 specsGPT-5 mini vs GPT-5.5Qwen3-72B vs GPT-5.5

Frequently asked

  • Is GPT-5 mini or Qwen3-72B cheaper?
    Per-token pricing isn't published for at least one of these models, check each model's spec page for current rates.
  • Which has the larger context window?
    GPT-5 mini accepts 400K tokens vs 128K for Qwen3-72B.
  • Is GPT-5 mini or Qwen3-72B better for coding?
    Both GPT-5 mini and Qwen3-72B are competitive on coding benchmarks. See each model's individual spec page for HumanEval and SWE-bench scores where published. For an opinionated pick, consult our Best LLM for Coding ranking.
  • Are either of these models open source?
    Qwen3-72B ships open weights (Apache-2.0). GPT-5 mini is API-only.
  • When were GPT-5 mini and Qwen3-72B released?
    GPT-5 mini was released by OpenAI on 2025-08-07. Qwen3-72B was released by Alibaba on 2025-04-29.
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