GPT-5.5 (Xhigh) vs Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.5 (Xhigh) by OpenAI or Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GPT-5.5 (Xhigh) scores 4.7 points higher (38.4 vs 33.7) but costs 4.0× as much to run the benchmark ($5294 vs $1336; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-5.5 (Xhigh) when you need intelligence above 33.7, and Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) when 33.7 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-5.5 (Xhigh) | Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 38.4 | 33.7 | −12.2% Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) is 12.2% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $5,294.36 | $1,336.09 | −74.8% Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) is 74.8% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 55.87s | 58.77s | +5.2% Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) is 5.2% 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 (Xhigh) vs GPT-5.5 (Xhigh): 12.2% less intelligence, 74.8% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 5.2% slower 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.
- Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
GPT-5.5 (Xhigh)Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh)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/qwen3-8-27b · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-5/qwen3-8-27b?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill