GPT-5.6 Luna (Medium) vs Qwen3.8 27B (Medium)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.6 Luna (Medium) by OpenAI or Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) 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
Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) scores 2.6 points higher (27.6 vs 25.0) but costs 26× as much to run the benchmark ($1165 vs $44.3; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) when you need intelligence above 25.0, and GPT-5.6 Luna (Medium) when 25.0 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-5.6 Luna (Medium) | Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 25.0 | 27.6 | +10.4% Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) is 10.4% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $44.32 | $1,165.00 | +2528.6% Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) is 26× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 6.50s | 56.45s | +768.5% Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) is 768.5% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.20 / $1.20 | $0.50 / $3.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) vs GPT-5.6 Luna (Medium): 10.4% more intelligence, 2528.6% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 768.5% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5.6 Luna (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Medium) scores 29.90 for $31.2.
- Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
GPT-5.6 Luna (Medium)Qwen3.8 27B (Medium)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-5-6-luna-medium/qwen3-8-27b-medium · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-6-luna-medium/qwen3-8-27b-medium?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill