API cost decision in 10 seconds

🔥GPT-5.5 vs 🔥Qwen3.6 Plus

Pick Qwen3.6 Plus for lower cost; pick GPT-5.5 only if the larger context window matters more.

Pricing data updated: 2026-05-17T07:07:33Z Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output

Budget verdict

Pick Qwen3.6 Plus for lower cost; pick GPT-5.5 only if the larger context window matters more.

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Qwen3.6 Plus is estimated at $1.3 vs $20 for GPT-5.5, saving $18.7 (93.5% lower).

Cost-first pickQwen3.6 Plus

Context-first pickGPT-5.5

Sample savings$18.793.5%

10x traffic gap$187

GPT-5.5 has more context, but Qwen3.6 Plus saves $18.7 on the standard workload. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $187. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.

Cheaper input Qwen3.6 Plus $5 vs $0.325 / 1M

Qwen3.6 Plus is $4.67 cheaper per 1M input tokens (93.5% lower; 15.4x difference).

Cheaper output Qwen3.6 Plus $30 vs $1.95 / 1M

Qwen3.6 Plus is $28.05 cheaper per 1M output tokens (93.5% lower; 15.4x difference).

Larger context GPT-5.5 1.05M vs 1M

GPT-5.5 has 50K more context (1.05x larger).

Sample workload Qwen3.6 Plus $20 vs $1.3

Qwen3.6 Plus is $18.7 cheaper on the standard workload (93.5% lower).

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.

Monthly input tokens Monthly output tokens

GPT-5.5 Calculating… Estimated API cost

Qwen3.6 Plus Calculating… Estimated API cost

Cheaper for this workload Calculating… Difference: calculating…

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

Verdict

Qwen3.6 Plus has the lower input price; Qwen3.6 Plus has the lower output price; GPT-5.5 offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Qwen3.6 Plus is cheaper for the standard workload.

For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $20 for GPT-5.5 and $1.3 for Qwen3.6 Plus.

Best Fit

Choose GPT-5.5 when you care most about larger context window.

Choose Qwen3.6 Plus when you care most about lower input-token price, and lower output-token price.

Decision Notes

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Qwen3.6 Plus is estimated at $1.3 vs $20 for GPT-5.5, saving $18.7 (93.5% lower).
Qwen3.6 Plus is $18.7 cheaper on the standard workload (93.5% lower).
Qwen3.6 Plus is $4.67 cheaper per 1M input tokens (93.5% lower; 15.4x difference).
Qwen3.6 Plus is $28.05 cheaper per 1M output tokens (93.5% lower; 15.4x difference).
GPT-5.5 has 50K more context (1.05x larger).

Head-to-Head Specs

Feature	🔥GPT-5.5 (OpenAI)	🔥Qwen3.6 Plus (Qwen)
Input Price prompt tokens per 1M	$5	$0.325
Completion Price per 1M tokens	$30	$1.95
Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output	$20	$1.3
Context Window	1.05M	1M
Release Date	2026-04-24	2026-04-02
Popularity Rank current rank	#15	#20

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use case	Better pick	Why
Budget-constrained production	Qwen3.6 Plus	On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Qwen3.6 Plus is estimated at $1.3 vs $20 for GPT-5.5, saving $18.7 (93.5% lower).
High-volume input processing	Qwen3.6 Plus	Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbots	Qwen3.6 Plus	Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document work	GPT-5.5	A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files.

Related Alternatives

Same-provider lower-cost swaps

gpt-oss-120b (free) can replace GPT-5.5 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
gpt-oss-20b (free) can replace GPT-5.5 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
gpt-oss-20b can replace GPT-5.5 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.1.
gpt-oss-120b can replace GPT-5.5 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.13.

Larger context near this budget

Llama 4 Scout offers 10M context with $0.23 sample workload cost.
Grok 4.20 Multi-Agent offers 2M context with $5 sample workload cost.
Grok 4.20 offers 2M context with $2.5 sample workload cost.

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Cheaper alternatives

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Larger context alternatives

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Provider catalogs

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OpenAI catalog

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Qwen catalog

Check other Qwen models with comparable pricing, context, or release timing.

Open Qwen models

GPT-5.5

GPT-5.5 is OpenAI’s frontier model designed for complex professional workloads, building on GPT-5.4 with stronger reasoning, higher reliability, and improved token efficiency on hard tasks. It features a 1M+ token...

Qwen3.6 Plus

Qwen 3.6 Plus builds on a hybrid architecture that combines efficient linear attention with sparse mixture-of-experts routing, enabling strong scalability and high-performance inference. Compared to the 3.5 series, it delivers...