GPT-5.5 (Medium) vs Qwen3.8 27B (Low)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.5 (Medium) by OpenAI or Qwen3.8 27B (Low) by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GPT-5.5 (Medium) scores 7.6 points higher (33.8 vs 26.2) but costs 2.0× as much to run the benchmark ($2095 vs $1060; flagship vs premium cost classes). Pick GPT-5.5 (Medium) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Qwen3.8 27B (Low).
| Metric | GPT-5.5 (Medium) | Qwen3.8 27B (Low) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 33.8 | 26.2 | −22.5% Qwen3.8 27B (Low) is 22.5% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,095.12 | $1,060.08 | −49.4% Qwen3.8 27B (Low) is 49.4% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 12.31s | 55.56s | +351.3% Qwen3.8 27B (Low) is 351.3% 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 (Medium): 22.5% less intelligence, 49.4% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 351.3% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5.5 (Medium) 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.
GPT-5.5 (Medium)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/gpt-5-5-medium/qwen3-8-27b-low · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-5-medium/qwen3-8-27b-low?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill