GPT-6 Astra (High) vs Qwen3.8 27B (Medium)
Which is better for the money: GPT-6 Astra (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 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GPT-6 Astra (High) scores 23.3 points higher (50.9 vs 27.6) but costs 2.3× as much to run the benchmark ($2925 vs $1278; flagship vs premium cost classes). Pick GPT-6 Astra (High) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Qwen3.8 27B (Medium).
| Metric | GPT-6 Astra (High) | Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 50.9 | 27.6 | −45.8% Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) is 45.8% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,925.01 | $1,277.59 | −56.3% Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) is 56.3% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 93.68s | 58.08s | −38.0% Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) is 38.0% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $10.0 / $50.0 | $0.50 / $3.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) vs GPT-6 Astra (High): 45.8% less intelligence, 56.3% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 38.0% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-6 Astra (High) 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 (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
GPT-6 Astra (High)Qwen3.8 27B (Medium)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-6-astra-high/qwen3-8-27b-medium · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-6-astra-high/qwen3-8-27b-medium?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill