GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026) vs Qwen3.8 27B (Low)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026) by OpenAI or Qwen3.8 27B (Low) 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
Qwen3.8 27B (Low) scores 0.2 points higher (26.2 vs 26.0) but costs 1.2× as much to run the benchmark ($1165 vs $987; both premium class). Pick Qwen3.8 27B (Low) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026).
| Metric | GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026) | Qwen3.8 27B (Low) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 26.0 | 26.2 | +0.8% Qwen3.8 27B (Low) is 0.8% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $986.85 | $1,164.93 | +18.0% Qwen3.8 27B (Low) is 18.0% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 16.37s | 55.08s | +236.5% Qwen3.8 27B (Low) is 236.5% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $5.00 / $30.0 | $0.50 / $3.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.8 27B (Low) vs GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026): 0.8% more intelligence, 18.0% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 236.5% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
- Qwen3.8 27B (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026)Qwen3.8 27B (Low)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
Compare something else
Agents:
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-5-instant-06-26/qwen3-8-27b-low · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-5-instant-06-26/qwen3-8-27b-low?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill