GPT-5.6 Sol (Medium) vs Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.6 Sol (Medium) 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-5.6 Sol (Medium) scores 20.8 points higher (39.2 vs 18.4) but costs 1.1× as much to run the benchmark ($997 vs $941; both premium class). Pick GPT-5.6 Sol (Medium) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning).
| Metric | GPT-5.6 Sol (Medium) | Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 39.2 | 18.4 | −53.1% Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Re… is 53.1% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $997.39 | $940.97 | −5.7% Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Re… is 5.7% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 11.36s | 65.15s | +473.5% Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Re… is 473.5% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $0.60 / $3.60 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) vs GPT-5.6 Sol (Medium): 53.1% less intelligence, 5.7% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 473.5% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5.6 Sol (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
- 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-5.6 Sol (Medium)Qwen3.5 397B A17B (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-5-6-sol-medium/qwen3-5-397b-a17b · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-6-sol-medium/qwen3-5-397b-a17b?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill