GPT-5.6 Sol (Medium) vs Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.6 Sol (Medium) by OpenAI or Qwen3.8 Max (0902) 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
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) scores 6.2 points higher (45.4 vs 39.2) but costs 4.9× as much to run the benchmark ($4935 vs $997; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.8 Max (0902) when you need intelligence above 39.2, and GPT-5.6 Sol (Medium) when 39.2 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-5.6 Sol (Medium) | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 39.2 | 45.4 | +15.8% Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is 15.8% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $997.39 | $4,934.79 | +394.8% Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is 4.9× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 10.52s | 62.92s | +498.1% Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is 498.1% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) vs GPT-5.6 Sol (Medium): 15.8% more intelligence, 394.8% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 498.1% 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.
- Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
GPT-5.6 Sol (Medium)Qwen3.8 Max (0902)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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