AI Models · Open-Source vs Paid

Qwen3.7 Max Open vs GPT-4.1 Paid

Qwen3.7 Max vs GPT-4.1 compared — price per token, context window, multimodality, openness and which to choose. Can the open-source model replace the paid one? Full 2026 breakdown.

Prices & specs refreshed from live data · OpenSourceAI.tech

Open-model prices = cheapest provider via OpenRouter; official maker rates may be higher.

Choose Qwen3.7 Max if you want to self-host, keep your data private and skip per-token fees — it's open-weight and runs on your own hardware. Choose GPT-4.1 if you want frontier capability through a managed API with zero infrastructure to run.

Qwen3.7 Max vs GPT-4.1 specs

SpecQwen3.7 MaxGPT-4.1
MakerAlibabaOpenAI
TypeOpen-weightProprietary
Context window1M tokens1M tokens
Input price$1.48/M · free self-host$2/M
Output price$4.43/M · free self-host$8/M
Vision / multimodalNoYes
Tool / function callingYesYes
Self-hostableYesNo (API only)
LicenseApache 2.0Proprietary

Feature comparison

CapabilityQwen3.7 MaxGPT-4.1
Open weights (downloadable)
Self-hostable
Runs fully offline
Vision / multimodal
Tool / function calling
1M+ context window

Benchmarks: Qwen3.7 Max vs GPT-4.1

Independent benchmark scores measured by Artificial Analysis. Higher is better (except latency).

Qwen3.7 Max delivers 2.2× more intelligence per dollar.
Qwen3.7 Max
GPT-4.1
Intelligence index
46
19.4
Coding index
66
GPQA
92.3%
66.6%
Humanity's Last Exam
38.1%
4.6%
Long Context Reasoning
69%
61%
SciCode
48.8%
38.1%
IFBench
80.5%
43%
τ²-Bench
94.7%
47.1%
τ-Bench Banking
10.9%
Terminal-Bench
74.5%
Terminal-Bench Hard
50.8%
13.6%
Math index
34.7
MMLU-Pro
80.6%
LiveCodeBench
45.7%
MATH-500
91.3%
AIME
43.7%
AIME 2025
34.7%
Speed
208 tok/s
150.8 tok/s
Latency
1.54s
0.56s
Intelligence per $
12.3
5.5

Benchmark data by Artificial Analysis.

How Qwen3.7 Max and GPT-4.1 score

🏆 Best value & openness: Qwen3.7 Max (4.5 vs 3.2 / 5)
CriterionQwen3.7 MaxGPT-4.1
Cost-efficiency4.03.5
Context window5.05.0
Openness5.01.5
Self-hosting5.01.0
Multimodality3.55.0

Scores come from live data — output price (cost), context length, open vs closed weights (openness & self-hosting) and vision/tool support (multimodality). Raw task quality isn't scored here; it depends on your benchmark — see the verdict.

What each model is

Qwen3.7 Max Open

Alibaba · Open-weight

Qwen3.7-Max is the flagship model in Alibaba's Qwen3.7 series. It supports text input and output and is designed for agent-centric workloads, with particular strengths in coding, office and productivity tasks,...

GPT-4.1 Paid

OpenAI · Proprietary

GPT-4.1 is a flagship large language model optimized for advanced instruction following, real-world software engineering, and long-context reasoning. It supports a 1 million token context window and outperforms GPT-4o and...

Other models in these families

These variants are tracked but not compared here — one page per family keeps the comparison readable.

Other variants tracked
Qwen3.7 PlusQwen3.6 35B A3BQwen3.5-FlashQwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507Qwen3.6 27BQwen3.6 PlusQwen3.5-9BQwen3.6 FlashQwen3.5-35B-A3BQwen3 Next 80B A3B InstructQwen3.5 397B A17BQwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507Qwen3 Coder NextQwen3.5-27BQwen3 32BQwen2.5 7B InstructQwen3.5-122B-A10BQwen3 VL 32B InstructQwen3 Coder 480B A35BQwen3 VL 235B A22B InstructQwen3 VL 8B InstructQwen3 VL 30B A3B InstructQwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B InstructQwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507Qwen2.5 VL 72B InstructQwen3 8BQwen2.5 72B InstructQwen3 30B A3BQwen3 14BQwen3 Coder PlusQwen3 Coder FlashQwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20Qwen3 235B A22BQwen3 MaxQwen-PlusQwen3.6 Max PreviewQwen3 30B A3B Thinking 2507Qwen3 Max ThinkingQwen3 Next 80B A3B ThinkingQwen3 VL 235B A22B ThinkingQwen3 VL 30B A3B ThinkingQwen Plus 0728Qwen3 VL 8B ThinkingQwen2.5 Coder 32B InstructQwen Plus 0728 (thinking)
Other variants tracked
GPT-4.1 Mini

Frequently asked questions

Is Qwen3.7 Max as good as GPT-4.1?

Qwen3.7 Max is open-weight and competitive on many tasks, but GPT-4.1 may still lead on the hardest reasoning and agentic work. The gap keeps narrowing — benchmark both on your actual use case before deciding.

Can I run Qwen3.7 Max locally?

Yes. Qwen3.7 Max has open weights, so you can self-host it on your own GPUs or run it via a low-cost API. GPT-4.1 is API-only and cannot be self-hosted.

How much cheaper is Qwen3.7 Max?

Qwen3.7 Max costs $4.43/M output vs $8/M for GPT-4.1 — roughly 2x cheaper via API, and free if you self-host.

Qwen3.7 Max vs GPT-4.1 — which should I pick in 2026?

Choose Qwen3.7 Max if you want to self-host, keep your data private and skip per-token fees — it's open-weight and runs on your own hardware. Choose GPT-4.1 if you want frontier capability through a managed API with zero infrastructure to run.

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