GPT-5.5 (Medium) vs Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reasoning)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.5 (Medium) by OpenAI or Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reasoning) by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-27.
Clear winner
Verdict
Pick GPT-5.5 (Medium)
Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reasoning) vs GPT-5.5 (Medium): 40.2% less intelligence, 10.3% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 13.2% slower end-to-end.
| Metric | GPT-5.5 (Medium) | Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 33.8 | 20.2 | −40.2% Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reas… is 40.2% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,833.39 | $2,022.49 | +10.3% Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reas… is 10.3% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 12.23s | 13.84s | +13.2% Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reas… is 13.2% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $5.00 / $30.0 | $0.50 / $3.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Video |
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 (Non-reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
GPT-5.5 (Medium)Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reasoning)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-non-reasoning · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-5-medium/qwen3-8-27b-non-reasoning?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill