GPT-6.1 Terra (Medium) vs Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Which is better for the money: GPT-6.1 Terra (Medium) by OpenAI or Qwen3.8 Max (0902) by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-27.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) scores 4.1 points higher (45.4 vs 41.3) but costs 28× as much to run the benchmark ($4935 vs $175; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.8 Max (0902) when you need intelligence above 41.3, and GPT-6.1 Terra (Medium) when 41.3 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-6.1 Terra (Medium) | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 41.3 | 45.4 | +9.9% Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is 9.9% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $175.20 | $4,934.79 | +2716.7% Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is 28× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 6.93s | 63.77s | +820.2% Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is 820.2% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $1.00 / $5.00 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) vs GPT-6.1 Terra (Medium): 9.9% more intelligence, 2716.7% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 820.2% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-6.1 Terra (Medium) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
- 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-6.1 Terra (Medium)Qwen3.8 Max (0902)Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/gpt-6-1-terra-medium/qwen3-8-max · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-6-1-terra-medium/qwen3-8-max?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill