GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026) vs Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026) by OpenAI or Qwen3.8 Max (0902) 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 Max (0902) scores 19.4 points higher (45.4 vs 26.0) but costs 5.0× as much to run the benchmark ($4935 vs $987; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.8 Max (0902) when you need intelligence above 26.0, and GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026) when 26.0 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026) | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 26.0 | 45.4 | +74.6% Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is 74.6% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $986.85 | $4,934.79 | +400.1% Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is 5.0× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 16.20s | 63.77s | +293.6% Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is 293.6% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $5.00 / $30.0 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) vs GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026): 74.6% more intelligence, 400.1% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 293.6% 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 Max (0902) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026)Qwen3.8 Max (0902)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-5-instant-06-26/qwen3-8-max · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-5-instant-06-26/qwen3-8-max?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill