GLM-5.1 (Reasoning) vs Qwen3.8 27B (Low)
Which is better for the money: GLM-5.1 (Reasoning) by Z AI or Qwen3.8 27B (Low) by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Clear winner
Verdict
Pick Qwen3.8 27B (Low)
Qwen3.8 27B (Low) vs GLM-5.1 (Reasoning): 0.4% more intelligence, 28.7% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 10.7% faster end-to-end.
| Metric | GLM-5.1 (Reasoning) | Qwen3.8 27B (Low) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 26.1 | 26.2 | +0.4% Qwen3.8 27B (Low) is 0.4% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,486.78 | $1,060.08 | −28.7% Qwen3.8 27B (Low) is 28.7% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 61.77s | 55.17s | −10.7% Qwen3.8 27B (Low) is 10.7% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $1.28 / $4.07 | $0.50 / $3.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image, Video |
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GLM-5.1 (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- Qwen3.8 27B (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
GLM-5.1 (Reasoning)Qwen3.8 27B (Low)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/glm-5-1/qwen3-8-27b-low · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/glm-5-1/qwen3-8-27b-low?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill