Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507 is $0.31 cheaper per 1M input tokens (77.5% lower; 4.44x difference).
API cost decision in 10 seconds
GPT-4.1 Mini vs Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507
Pick Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507 for lower cost; pick GPT-4.1 Mini only if the larger context window matters more.
Page updated:
Data confirmed:
Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens
Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output
Budget verdict
Pick Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507 for lower cost; pick GPT-4.1 Mini only if the larger context window matters more.
On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507 is estimated at $0.24 vs $1.2 for GPT-4.1 Mini, saving $0.96 (80% lower).
Cost-first pickQwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507
Context-first pickGPT-4.1 Mini
Sample savings$0.9680%
10x traffic gap$9.6
GPT-4.1 Mini has more context, but Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507 saves $0.96 on the standard workload. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $9.6. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.
Cost sensitivity
Workload Sensitivity
Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507 stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.
| Workload shape | Token mix | Better pick | GPT-4.1 Mini | Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Input-heavy / RAG | 5M input + 500K output | Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507 | $2.8 | $0.6 |
| Balanced workload | 1M input + 1M output | Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507 | $2 | $0.39 |
| Output-heavy chatbot | 1M input + 5M output | Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507 | $8.4 | $1.59 |
Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507 is $1.3 cheaper per 1M output tokens (81.2% lower; 5.33x difference).
GPT-4.1 Mini has 785.43K more context (4x larger).
Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507 is $0.96 cheaper on the standard workload (80% lower).
Estimate your workload cost
Your Workload Cost
This estimate uses normalized public API pricing per 1M tokens. It is a planning aid, not a billing quote. Verify provider pricing, limits, and terms before production use.
Quick Decision
Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507 has the lower input price; Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507 has the lower output price; GPT-4.1 Mini offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507 is cheaper for the standard workload.
For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $1.2 for GPT-4.1 Mini and $0.24 for Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507.
Choose GPT-4.1 Mini when you care most about larger context window.
Choose Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507 when you care most about lower input-token price, and lower output-token price.
- On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507 is estimated at $0.24 vs $1.2 for GPT-4.1 Mini, saving $0.96 (80% lower).
- Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507 is $0.96 cheaper on the standard workload (80% lower).
- Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507 is $0.31 cheaper per 1M input tokens (77.5% lower; 4.44x difference).
- Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507 is $1.3 cheaper per 1M output tokens (81.2% lower; 5.33x difference).
- GPT-4.1 Mini has 785.43K more context (4x larger).
| Feature | GPT-4.1 Mini (OpenAI) | Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507 (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|
| Input Price prompt tokens per 1M | $0.4 | $0.09 |
| Completion Price per 1M tokens | $1.6 | $0.3 |
| Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output | $1.2 | $0.24 |
| Context Window | 1.05M | 262.14K |
| Release Date | ||
| Popularity | #51 | #110 |
Use-Case Decision Matrix
| Use case | Better pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Budget-constrained production | Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507 | On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507 is estimated at $0.24 vs $1.2 for GPT-4.1 Mini, saving $0.96 (80% lower). |
| High-volume input processing | Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507 | Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill. |
| Long responses and chatbots | Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507 | Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens. |
| RAG or long-document work | GPT-4.1 Mini | A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files. |
Related Alternatives
- gpt-oss-120b (free) can replace GPT-4.1 Mini when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- gpt-oss-20b (free) can replace GPT-4.1 Mini when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- gpt-oss-20b can replace GPT-4.1 Mini when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.1.
- gpt-oss-120b can replace GPT-4.1 Mini when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.13.
- Llama 4 Scout offers 10M context with $0.23 sample workload cost.
- Owl Alpha offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
- DeepSeek V4 Flash offers 1.05M context with $0.2 sample workload cost.
- DeepSeek V4 Pro offers 1.05M context with $0.87 sample workload cost.
- DeepSeek V4 Flash · DeepSeek · #1
- Hy3 preview · Tencent · #2
- Claude Opus 4.7 · Anthropic · #3
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 · Anthropic · #4
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Open Qwen modelsGPT-4.1 Mini is a mid-sized model delivering performance competitive with GPT-4o at substantially lower latency and cost. It retains a 1 million token context window and scores 45.1% on hard...
Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507 is a 30.5B-parameter mixture-of-experts language model from Qwen, with 3.3B active parameters per inference. It operates in non-thinking mode and is designed for high-quality instruction following, multilingual understanding, and...