Last verified 2026-04-24 (left) · 2026-03-12 (right)

GPT-5.5 vs Qwen Plus — Pricing & Capability Comparison

GPT-5.5 charges $5.00 per million input tokens and $30.00 per million output tokens. Qwen Plus comes in at $0.40 / $4.00. Context windows span 1M vs 256K tokens respectively.

TL;DR — Quick Comparison

✓Qwen Plus is cheaper overall: $4.40 per 1M tokens (in+out) vs $35.00 for GPT-5.5 — saves $30.60 per 1M tokens
✓Input pricing: GPT-5.5 $5.00/1M vs Qwen Plus $0.40/1M
✓Output pricing: GPT-5.5 $30.00/1M vs Qwen Plus $4.00/1M
✓Context window: GPT-5.5 offers more (1M vs 256K)
✓Use our calculator below to estimate costs for your specific usage pattern

Input price (per 1M)

GPT-5.5

$5.00

Qwen Plus

$0.40

Qwen Plus leads here

Output price (per 1M)

GPT-5.5

$30.00

Qwen Plus

$4.00

Qwen Plus leads here

Context window

GPT-5.5

1,000,000 tokens

Qwen Plus

256,000 tokens

GPT-5.5 leads here

Cached input

GPT-5.5

$0.500

Qwen Plus

Not published

GPT-5.5 leads here

Which one should you choose?

Skip the spreadsheet if you just need the practical takeaway. Use these rules when deciding between GPT-5.5 and Qwen Plus.

Choose Qwen Plus if input tokens dominate your bill

Qwen Plus has the lower input rate, which usually matters most for chat, RAG, classification, and long-prompt workflows where prompt volume stays much larger than generated output.

Choose Qwen Plus if you generate long answers

Qwen Plus is cheaper on output tokens, so it tends to win for report generation, coding assistance, reasoning traces, and any workflow where completions are long.

Choose GPT-5.5 if context size is the blocker

GPT-5.5 offers the larger published context window, which is more important than small pricing differences when you need to fit large files, long chats, or multi-document prompts into one request.

Cost comparison for 10K-token workloads

Side-by-side pricing for identical workloads (10,000 total tokens per request) across different distributions.

Scenario	GPT-5.5	Qwen Plus	GPT-5.5 cached
Balanced conversation 50% input · 50% output	$0.175	$0.0220	$0.152
Input-heavy workflow 80% input · 20% output	$0.100	$0.0112	$0.0640
Generation heavy 30% input · 70% output	$0.225	$0.0292	$0.211
Cached system prompt 90% cached input · 10% fresh output	$0.0750	$0.0076	$0.0345

Frequently asked questions

Which is cheaper: GPT-5.5 or Qwen Plus?

Qwen Plus is cheaper for input tokens at $0.40 per 1M tokens compared to $5.00. For output, Qwen Plus costs $4.00 per 1M tokens versus $30.00 for GPT-5.5.

What is the cost per 1M tokens for GPT-5.5?

GPT-5.5 pricing: $5.00 per 1M input tokens and $30.00 per 1M output tokens. Context window: 1,000,000 tokens.

What is the cost per 1M tokens for Qwen Plus?

Qwen Plus pricing: $0.40 per 1M input tokens and $4.00 per 1M output tokens. Context window: 256,000 tokens.

How much does it cost per 1K tokens?

Per 1K tokens: GPT-5.5 costs $0.0050 input / $0.0300 output. Qwen Plus costs $0.0004 input / $0.0040 output. This is useful for calculating small-scale usage costs.

Which model supports a larger context window?

GPT-5.5 offers 1,000,000 tokens (1M) versus 256K for Qwen Plus.

What is the estimated monthly cost for typical usage?

For a typical workload of 10M input + 2M output tokens per month: GPT-5.5 would cost approximately $110.00, while Qwen Plus would cost $12.00. Qwen Plus is more economical for this usage pattern.

Do these models support prompt caching?

GPT-5.5 supports prompt caching at $0.500 per 1M cached tokens, reducing costs for repeated context by up to 90%. Qwen Plus does not publish cached pricing.

Which model is best for my use case?

Choose Qwen Plus for cost-sensitive applications with high input volume. Choose GPT-5.5 if you need 1M context for long documents or conversations. Consider prompt caching if you have repeated context. Use our token calculator to model your specific usage pattern.