GPT-5.6 Terra (Non-reasoning) vs Qwen3.8 27B (Medium)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.6 Terra (Non-reasoning) by OpenAI or Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-27.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) scores 6.8 points higher (27.6 vs 20.8) but costs 5.0× as much to run the benchmark ($1278 vs $256; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) when you need intelligence above 20.8, and GPT-5.6 Terra (Non-reasoning) when 20.8 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-5.6 Terra (Non-reasoning) | Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 20.8 | 27.6 | +32.7% Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) is 32.7% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $255.77 | $1,277.59 | +399.5% Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) is 5.0× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 4.90s | 55.72s | +1037.1% Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) is 1037.1% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $12.0 | $0.50 / $3.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) vs GPT-5.6 Terra (Non-reasoning): 32.7% more intelligence, 399.5% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 1037.1% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5.6 Terra (Non-reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
- 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 Terra (Non-reasoning)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-terra-non-reasoning/qwen3-8-27b-medium · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-6-terra-non-reasoning/qwen3-8-27b-medium?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill