Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning) vs Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning) by Google or Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) scores 12.5 points higher (21.4 vs 8.9) but costs 78× as much to run the benchmark ($1145 vs $14.7; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) when you need intelligence above 8.9, and Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning) when 8.9 is enough.
| Metric | Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning) | Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 8.9 | 21.4 | +140.4% Qwen3.6 27B (Reasonin… is 2.4× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $14.68 | $1,145.36 | +7702.2% Qwen3.6 27B (Reasonin… is 78× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 56.02s | 111.38s | +98.8% Qwen3.6 27B (Reasonin… is 98.8% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.02 / $0.10 | $0.60 / $3.60 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) vs Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning): 140.4% more intelligence, 7702.2% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 98.8% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
- Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning)Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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