GPT-6 Luna (Medium) vs Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh)
Which is better for the money: GPT-6 Luna (Medium) by OpenAI or Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) 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 (Xhigh) scores 3.8 points higher (33.7 vs 29.9) but costs 43× as much to run the benchmark ($1336 vs $31.2; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) when you need intelligence above 29.9, and GPT-6 Luna (Medium) when 29.9 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-6 Luna (Medium) | Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 29.9 | 33.7 | +12.7% Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) is 12.7% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $31.17 | $1,336.09 | +4186.5% Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) is 43× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 8.25s | 60.10s | +628.5% Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) is 628.5% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.10 / $0.50 | $0.50 / $3.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) vs GPT-6 Luna (Medium): 12.7% more intelligence, 4186.5% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 628.5% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-6 Luna (Medium) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
- Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
GPT-6 Luna (Medium)Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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