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Head-to-head comparison

o4 Mini vs Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct

o4 Mini (OpenAI) and Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct (Qwen) compared on the ModelCap Index, API price, context window, provider availability, weight access and every public benchmark board they share. Figures are the same ones shown on the live rankings; nothing here is a hidden score.

Snapshot as of 10 September 2026

As of 10 September 2026, Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct holds the stronger ModelCap Index position (#92 vs #95); Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct is 15.7× cheaper per output token ($0.28/1M vs $4.40/1M); Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct offers the longer context window (262K vs 200K tokens); and Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct ships open weights.

Which should you choose?

Choose o4 Mini if…

  • AA τ²-Bench Telecom is your yardstick — 55.6% against 34.5%.
  • AA Humanity's Last Exam is your yardstick — 16.5% against 3.8%.

Choose Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct if…

  • you want the stronger overall ModelCap Index position — #92 against #95 (48.1 vs 45.9 points).
  • API cost matters — $0.28/1M output tokens against $4.40/1M, about 15.7× cheaper.
  • your workload is prompt-heavy — input tokens cost $0.07/1M against $1.10/1M.
  • you need the longer context window — 262K tokens against 200K.
  • you want to self-host: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct ships open weights while o4 Mini is api only.
  • you want provider choice — 4 listed API providers against 1.
  • you want the more recently listed model — Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct was listed 31 July 2025, o4 Mini 16 April 2025.

o4 Mini vs Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct: specs, pricing and context

Specification comparison of o4 Mini and Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct
Fieldo4 MiniOpenAIQwen3 Coder 30B A3B InstructQwen
ModelCap Index position#95#92
Index score45.948.1
EvidenceMeasuredEstimated
Input price / 1M tokens$1.10$0.07
Output price / 1M tokens$4.40$0.28
Context window200K tokens262K tokens
Max output tokens100K236K
API providers listed14
Weight accessAPI onlyOpen weights
Input modalitiesImage, Text, FileText
First listed16 April 202531 July 2025
PublisherOpenAIQwen

Evidence: 3 public benchmark observations across 3 boards · publisher-corpus-prior over 185 held-out anchors (7%); launch card against 3 resolved peers on 4 rows (94%); no cross-lab optimism probe available; shrunk 0.2 up toward the measured corpus. Prices are the lowest listed API offer per million tokens observed on the OpenRouter catalogue.

Benchmark scores: o4 Mini vs Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct

Public benchmark boards where o4 Mini or Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct has a published result
Boardo4 MiniQwen3 Coder 30B A3B InstructLeads
Arena codingArena (LMArena)14331426–1440—Only one result
ARC-AGI-2ARC Prize Foundation6.1%High—Only one result
SWE-benchSWE-bench (Princeton / SWE-agent team)45.0%—Only one result
BFCL V4UC Berkeley (Gorilla)53.2Function calling—Only one result
AA τ²-Bench TelecomArtificial Analysis55.6%tau2:telecom:dual-control:pass-at-1:3-repeats:source-model="o4-mini (high)":reasoning=true34.5%tau2:telecom:dual-control:pass-at-1:3-repeats:source-model="Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B":reasoning=falseo4 Mini
AA Humanity's Last ExamArtificial Analysis16.5%hle:may-2025:text-only-2158:no-tools:pass-at-1:source-model="o4-mini (high)":reasoning=true3.8%hle:may-2025:text-only-2158:no-tools:pass-at-1:source-model="Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B":reasoning=falseo4 Mini

Scores are the sources' own published figures for each model's best evaluated configuration; ModelCap never re-runs a benchmark.

Want a different pairing? Open the interactive comparison tool to swap either model for any current ranked language model.

o4 Mini vs Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct: common questions

Is o4 Mini better than Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct?

Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct ranks higher on the ModelCap Index as of 10 September 2026: #92 against #95. That is a capability ranking built from public benchmark evidence with published uncertainty; whether it is "better" for you also depends on price, context and where you can run it. Their published uncertainty intervals overlap, so the rank difference alone does not establish a reliable capability advantage for your workload.

Is o4 Mini cheaper than Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct?

Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct is cheaper on output tokens: $0.28/1M against $4.40/1M. Input tokens are $1.10/1M for o4 Mini and $0.07/1M for Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct. Prices are the lowest listed API offer ModelCap observed, in USD per million tokens. For 1,000 requests with 2,000 input and 500 output tokens each (2M input + 0.5M output), the listed-rate estimate is $4.40 for o4 Mini versus $0.28 for Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct. Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct costs 93.6% less in this scenario. This excludes caching, batch discounts, prompt-length tiers, tool charges and retries; verify the selected endpoint before budgeting.

Which has the bigger context window, o4 Mini or Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct?

Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct has the larger context window: 262K tokens against 200K.

Which is better for coding, o4 Mini or Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct?

The two models do not share a coding benchmark board on ModelCap yet, so no head-to-head coding score is published; the ModelCap Index position is the closest overall signal.

Are o4 Mini and Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct open-weight models?

o4 Mini: API only. Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct: Open weights. Open weights mean the checkpoint can be downloaded and self-hosted under its licence; API-only models are available solely through hosted endpoints.

Where can I run o4 Mini and Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct?

ModelCap currently lists 1 API provider for o4 Mini and 4 for Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct, from the OpenRouter catalogue snapshot the site serves; each model page lists the providers and their prices.

How current is this o4 Mini vs Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct comparison?

Every figure comes from the sealed ModelCap dataset published 10 September 2026; the page re-renders within a minute of each data refresh, and the ModelCap Index positions are the same ones shown on the live rankings.

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