Model comparison

GPT-5.2 vs Qwen3-235B-A22B

OpenAI against Qwen, compared on context, price, and verified benchmark results.

Catalog record checked September 26, 2026Individual provider fields may changeEvidence confidence: High — see receipts below

OpenAI

GPT-5.2

Balanced

Qwen

Qwen3-235B-A22B

Balanced · Open weights

AI model capability comparison
Specification	GPT-5.2	Qwen3-235B-A22B
Provider
Provider	OpenAI	Qwen
Tier
Tier	Balanced	Balanced
Context window
Context window	Winner: 400K	128K
Max output
Max output	Winner: 128K	33K
Input / 1M tokens
Input / 1M tokens	$1.75	Winner: $0.70
Output / 1M tokens
Output / 1M tokens	$14	Winner: $2.80
Weights
Weights	Closed	Open
Parameters
Parameters	Not disclosedUnverified	235B total / 22B active (MoE)
Reasoning levels
Reasoning levels	none, low, medium, high, xhigh	low, high, max
Modalities
Modalities	text, image	text
License
License	Not disclosedUnverified	Apache 2.0
API model id
API model id	gpt-5.2	qwen3-235b-a22b
Released
Released	December 11, 2025	April 29, 2025
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index [xhigh] (2026-09-26)
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index [xhigh] (2026-09-26)	30.4	Not verifiedUnverified
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (2026-09-26)
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (2026-09-26)	Not verifiedUnverified	9.5

Prices are USD per million tokens at standard rates, excluding batch and caching discounts. Bold indicates the better figure where one is objectively better. Values we could not confirm from the provider are shown as “Not verified” rather than estimated.

Benchmark receipts

Where each score comes from, and how far it can be compared across models.

2026-09-26
Artificial Analysis (Reasoning, AA-estimated)
Composite index blending reasoning, knowledge, and coding evals into one 0–100 score.
Comparable with caveatOnly same-version scores are comparable. v4.3.2 was rebaselined (the top score fell from 66 on v4.1.1 to ~58), so v4.1.1 figures must not be compared with v4.3.2 figures — check measuredAt.

Pricing tiers

GPT-5.2: Standard $1.75/$14 per MTok; cached input $0.175/MTok; batch $0.875/$7. (gpt-5.2-pro exists at $21/$168.)

Qwen3-235B-A22B: Model Studio International $0.70 input / $2.80 output per MTok (non-thinking); thinking-mode output $8.40. Open weights (Apache 2.0) for self-hosting; 32,768-token recommended output.

BalancedRecord checked September 26, 2026

GPT-5.2

GPT-5.2 was OpenAI's December 2025 flagship — still a widely integrated general model at $1.75/$14.

Best for

General production
Agentic workflows
Knowledge work

Watch out

Three generations behind GPT-6 — OpenAI's GPT-5.2 page recommends GPT-6 Astra; capable but no longer flagship.

BalancedOpen weightsRecord checked September 26, 2026

Qwen3-235B-A22B

Qwen3-235B-A22B is Alibaba's widely deployed open-weight MoE — 235B/22B, strong price-performance.

Best for

Open-weight deployments
Self-hosting
Multilingual

Watch out

Needs multi-GPU for the 235B total; hosted rates vary.

When the cheaper one wins

Qwen3-235B-A22B is cheaper on output at $2.80 per million tokens against $14 for GPT-5.2 — about 5.0×. Use the cheaper tier for classification, extraction, summarisation, and any task where the expensive model’s extra score does not change the accepted output. The expensive one only pays if your hardest task actually fails on the cheap tier. These are standard-tier API rates, excluding batch and cache discounts.

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Evidence confidence: High

How strong and complete the evidence behind this comparison is — not a prediction of which model is better.

Pricing verified on both sides — Input and output rates are verified for both models.
4/5 core specs verified on both sides — Not published for at least one side: parameter count.
1 shared named benchmark with differing scores — Measured on: Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.
Verified within the last 90 days — Newest catalog check was 2 days ago.
Both models carry source citations — Each side has at least two catalog sources on record.

Source receipts

Each catalog figure was checked against the provider or an independent second source on the date shown.

GPT-5.2: OpenAI — Introducing GPT-5.2 (accessed 2026-08-29)
GPT-5.2: OpenAI API pricing (gpt-5.2 $1.75/$14) (accessed 2026-08-29)
Qwen3-235B-A22B: HuggingFace — Qwen3-235B-A22B (accessed 2026-08-29)
Qwen3-235B-A22B: Qwen — Qwen3 (accessed 2026-08-29)
Qwen3-235B-A22B: Alibaba Cloud Model Studio pricing (qwen3-235b-a22b $0.70/$2.80, thinking $8.40) (accessed 2026-09-26)

Related comparisons

Diving deeper on one model? GPT-5.2 · Qwen3-235B-A22B

Common questions

GPT-5.2 vs Qwen3-235B-A22B

Answered from the verified figures on this page rather than general guidance.

Is GPT-5.2 or Qwen3-235B-A22B cheaper for input?

Qwen3-235B-A22B is cheaper at $0.70 per million input tokens, against $1.75 for GPT-5.2 — roughly 2.5× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; GPT-5.2 has tiered pricing: Standard $1.75/$14 per MTok; cached input $0.175/MTok; batch $0.875/$7. (gpt-5.2-pro exists at $21/$168.) Qwen3-235B-A22B has tiered pricing: Model Studio International $0.70 input / $2.80 output per MTok (non-thinking); thinking-mode output $8.40. Open weights (Apache 2.0) for self-hosting; 32,768-token recommended output.

Is GPT-5.2 or Qwen3-235B-A22B cheaper for output?

Qwen3-235B-A22B is cheaper at $2.80 per million output tokens, against $14 for GPT-5.2 — roughly 5.0× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; GPT-5.2 has tiered pricing: Standard $1.75/$14 per MTok; cached input $0.175/MTok; batch $0.875/$7. (gpt-5.2-pro exists at $21/$168.) Qwen3-235B-A22B has tiered pricing: Model Studio International $0.70 input / $2.80 output per MTok (non-thinking); thinking-mode output $8.40. Open weights (Apache 2.0) for self-hosting; 32,768-token recommended output.

Which has the larger context window, GPT-5.2 or Qwen3-235B-A22B?

GPT-5.2 accepts 400K tokens against 128K for Qwen3-235B-A22B. This only matters if you routinely send very long documents or large codebases.

Do GPT-5.2 and Qwen3-235B-A22B support the same reasoning levels?

GPT-5.2 exposes none, low, medium, high, xhigh, while Qwen3-235B-A22B exposes low, high, max.

Should I use GPT-5.2 or Qwen3-235B-A22B?

Both sit in the balanced tier, so the choice usually comes down to price and context rather than capability. GPT-5.2 suits general production; Qwen3-235B-A22B suits open-weight deployments.

Can I self-host GPT-5.2 or Qwen3-235B-A22B?

Qwen3-235B-A22B publishes open weights, but self-hosting and third-party provider access depend on the licence, hardware, serving support, and availability. GPT-5.2 is a closed model whose supported access paths are controlled by its provider.

Next step

Choosing between them

The verified figures that separate this pair, computed from the catalog rather than restated boilerplate.

Input price: Qwen3-235B-A22B costs $0.70 per 1M tokens versus $1.75 for GPT-5.2 — a 2.5x difference at the headline tier.
Context: GPT-5.2 takes 400K against 128K for Qwen3-235B-A22B — only decisive if your prompts approach the smaller window.
Deployment: Qwen3-235B-A22B publishes weights you can self-host; the other is API-only.

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