GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) vs Qwen3.8 27B (Low)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) by OpenAI or Qwen3.8 27B (Low) by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-27.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) scores 15.9 points higher (42.1 vs 26.2) but costs 2.1× as much to run the benchmark ($2501 vs $1165; flagship vs premium cost classes). Pick GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Qwen3.8 27B (Low).
| Metric | GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) | Qwen3.8 27B (Low) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 42.1 | 26.2 | −37.8% Qwen3.8 27B (Low) is 37.8% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,500.72 | $1,164.93 | −53.4% Qwen3.8 27B (Low) is 53.4% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 115.02s | 55.03s | −52.2% Qwen3.8 27B (Low) is 52.2% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $12.0 | $0.50 / $3.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.8 27B (Low) vs GPT-5.6 Terra (Max): 37.8% less intelligence, 53.4% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 52.2% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) scores 53.60 for $2172.
- Qwen3.8 27B (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
GPT-5.6 Terra (Max)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-5-6-terra/qwen3-8-27b-low · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-6-terra/qwen3-8-27b-low?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill