GPT-5 mini (High) vs Qwen3.8 27B (Low)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5 mini (High) by OpenAI or Qwen3.8 27B (Low) by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Qwen3.8 27B (Low) scores 9.4 points higher (26.2 vs 16.8) but costs 5.6× as much to run the benchmark ($1060 vs $189; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.8 27B (Low) when you need intelligence above 16.8, and GPT-5 mini (High) when 16.8 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-5 mini (High) | Qwen3.8 27B (Low) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 16.8 | 26.2 | +56.0% Qwen3.8 27B (Low) is 56.0% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $188.66 | $1,060.08 | +461.9% Qwen3.8 27B (Low) is 5.6× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 67.32s | 55.17s | −18.0% Qwen3.8 27B (Low) is 18.0% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.25 / $2.00 | $0.50 / $3.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.8 27B (Low) vs GPT-5 mini (High): 56.0% more intelligence, 461.9% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 18.0% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5 mini (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Haiku 5.5 (Xhigh) scores 41.20 for $158.
- Qwen3.8 27B (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
GPT-5 mini (High)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-mini/qwen3-8-27b-low · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-mini/qwen3-8-27b-low?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill