Gemini 3.6 Flash (High) vs Qwen3.8 Max
Which is better for the money: Gemini 3.6 Flash (High) by Google or Qwen3.8 Max by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Qwen3.8 Max scores 6.2 points higher (40.2 vs 34.0) but costs 2.0× as much to run the benchmark ($3172 vs $1614; flagship vs premium cost classes). Pick Qwen3.8 Max when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Gemini 3.6 Flash (High).
| Metric | Gemini 3.6 Flash (High) | Qwen3.8 Max | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 34.0 | 40.2 | +18.2% Qwen3.8 Max is 18.2% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,614.42 | $3,172.37 | +96.5% Qwen3.8 Max is 96.5% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 20.22s | 62.87s | +210.9% Qwen3.8 Max is 210.9% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.75 / $3.75 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.8 Max vs Gemini 3.6 Flash (High): 18.2% more intelligence, 96.5% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 210.9% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Gemini 3.6 Flash (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- Qwen3.8 Max is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 55.10 for $3117.
Gemini 3.6 Flash (High)Qwen3.8 MaxToday's Pareto frontierEvery other model
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