Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) vs Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) by Google or Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) scores 19.5 points higher (40.9 vs 21.4) but costs 1.4× as much to run the benchmark ($1623 vs $1145; both premium class). Pick Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning).
| Metric | Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) | Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 40.9 | 21.4 | −47.7% Qwen3.6 27B (Reasonin… is 47.7% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,622.73 | $1,145.36 | −29.4% Qwen3.6 27B (Reasonin… is 29.4% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 30.36s | 110.87s | +265.2% Qwen3.6 27B (Reasonin… is 265.2% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.75 / $3.75 | $0.60 / $3.60 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) vs Gemini 3.8 Flash (High): 47.7% less intelligence, 29.4% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 265.2% 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, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Gemini 3.8 Flash (High)Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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