DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) vs Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reasoning)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) by DeepSeek or Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reasoning) by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-27.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reasoning) scores 8.8 points higher (20.2 vs 11.4) but costs 4.4× as much to run the benchmark ($2022 vs $461; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reasoning) when you need intelligence above 11.4, and DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) when 11.4 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) | Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 11.4 | 20.2 | +77.2% Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reas… is 77.2% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $460.74 | $2,022.49 | +339.0% Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reas… is 4.4× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 18.43s | 13.84s | −24.9% Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reas… is 24.9% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $4.00 | $0.50 / $3.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reasoning) vs DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25): 77.2% more intelligence, 339.0% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 24.9% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
- Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25)Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-r1-0120/qwen3-8-27b-non-reasoning · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-r1-0120/qwen3-8-27b-non-reasoning?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill