GLM-5.3 (Max) vs Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reasoning)
Which is better for the money: GLM-5.3 (Max) by Z AI or Qwen3.8 27B (Non-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
GLM-5.3 (Max) scores 24.6 points higher (44.8 vs 20.2) but costs 1.2× as much to run the benchmark ($2503 vs $2022; both flagship class). Pick GLM-5.3 (Max) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reasoning).
| Metric | GLM-5.3 (Max) | Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 44.8 | 20.2 | −54.9% Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reas… is 54.9% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,503.48 | $2,022.49 | −19.2% Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reas… is 19.2% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 28.27s | 13.95s | −50.7% Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reas… is 50.7% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $1.40 / $4.40 | $0.50 / $3.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reasoning) vs GLM-5.3 (Max): 54.9% less intelligence, 19.2% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 50.7% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GLM-5.3 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) scores 53.60 for $2172.
- Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
GLM-5.3 (Max)Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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