GPT-5.5 (Xhigh) vs Qwen3.8 27B (Low)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.5 (Xhigh) 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 (Xhigh) scores 12.2 points higher (38.4 vs 26.2) but costs 5.0× as much to run the benchmark ($5294 vs $1060; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-5.5 (Xhigh) when you need intelligence above 26.2, and Qwen3.8 27B (Low) when 26.2 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-5.5 (Xhigh) | Qwen3.8 27B (Low) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 38.4 | 26.2 | −31.8% Qwen3.8 27B (Low) is 31.8% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $5,294.36 | $1,060.08 | −80.0% Qwen3.8 27B (Low) is 80.0% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 82.06s | 55.56s | −32.3% Qwen3.8 27B (Low) is 32.3% faster |
| 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 (Xhigh): 31.8% less intelligence, 80.0% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 32.3% 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.
- Qwen3.8 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 (Xhigh)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/qwen3-8-27b-low · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-5/qwen3-8-27b-low?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill