Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) vs Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) by Google or Qwen3.5 397B A17B (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
Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) scores 22.5 points higher (40.9 vs 18.4) but costs 4.0× as much to run the benchmark ($3770 vs $941; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) when you need intelligence above 18.4, and Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) when 18.4 is enough.
| Metric | Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) | Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 40.9 | 18.4 | −55.0% Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Re… is 55.0% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $3,769.96 | $940.97 | −75.0% Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Re… is 75.0% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 31.95s | 65.32s | +104.4% Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Re… is 104.4% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.75 / $3.75 | $0.60 / $3.60 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text, Image |
Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) vs Gemini 3.8 Flash (High): 55.0% less intelligence, 75.0% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 104.4% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 55.10 for $3117.
- Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
Gemini 3.8 Flash (High)Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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