GPT-5 mini (High) vs Qwen3.8 27B (Medium)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5 mini (High) by OpenAI or Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) scores 10.8 points higher (27.6 vs 16.8) but costs 6.2× as much to run the benchmark ($1165 vs $189; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) 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 (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 16.8 | 27.6 | +64.3% Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) is 64.3% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $188.66 | $1,165.00 | +517.5% Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) is 6.2× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 58.72s | 55.12s | −6.1% Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) is 6.1% 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 (Medium) vs GPT-5 mini (High): 64.3% more intelligence, 517.5% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 6.1% 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 (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
GPT-5 mini (High)Qwen3.8 27B (Medium)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
Compare something else
Agents:
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-mini/qwen3-8-27b-medium · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-mini/qwen3-8-27b-medium?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill