GPT-5.5 (Xhigh) vs Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.5 (Xhigh) by OpenAI or Qwen3.5 397B A17B (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
GPT-5.5 (Xhigh) scores 20.0 points higher (38.4 vs 18.4) but costs 5.6× as much to run the benchmark ($5294 vs $941; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-5.5 (Xhigh) when you need intelligence above 18.4, and Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) when 18.4 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-5.5 (Xhigh) | Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 38.4 | 18.4 | −52.1% Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Re… is 52.1% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $5,294.36 | $940.97 | −82.2% Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Re… is 82.2% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 74.88s | 65.10s | −13.1% Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Re… is 13.1% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $5.00 / $30.0 | $0.60 / $3.60 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) vs GPT-5.5 (Xhigh): 52.1% less intelligence, 82.2% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 13.1% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5.5 (Xhigh) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
- Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
GPT-5.5 (Xhigh)Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning)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/qwen3-5-397b-a17b · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-5/qwen3-5-397b-a17b?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill