GPT-5 mini (High) vs Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5 mini (High) 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 28.6 points higher (45.4 vs 16.8) but costs 26× as much to run the benchmark ($4935 vs $189; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.8 Max (0902) when you need intelligence above 16.8, and GPT-5 mini (High) when 16.8 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-5 mini (High) | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 16.8 | 45.4 | +170.2% Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is 2.7× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $188.66 | $4,934.79 | +2515.7% Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is 26× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 60.90s | 64.02s | +5.1% Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is 5.1% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.25 / $2.00 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) vs GPT-5 mini (High): 170.2% more intelligence, 2515.7% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 5.1% slower 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 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 mini (High)Qwen3.8 Max (0902)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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