gpt-oss-20b (High) vs Qwen3.8 Max
Which is better for the money: gpt-oss-20b (High) by OpenAI or Qwen3.8 Max 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
Qwen3.8 Max scores 31.2 points higher (40.2 vs 9.0) but costs 110× as much to run the benchmark ($3172 vs $28.8; flagship vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.8 Max when you need intelligence above 9.0, and gpt-oss-20b (High) when 9.0 is enough.
| Metric | gpt-oss-20b (High) | Qwen3.8 Max | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 9.0 | 40.2 | +346.7% Qwen3.8 Max is 4.5× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $28.81 | $3,172.37 | +10911.4% Qwen3.8 Max is 110× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 14.95s | 64.42s | +330.9% Qwen3.8 Max is 330.9% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.05 / $0.22 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.8 Max vs gpt-oss-20b (High): 346.7% more intelligence, 10911.4% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 330.9% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- gpt-oss-20b (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
- Qwen3.8 Max is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 55.10 for $3117.
gpt-oss-20b (High)Qwen3.8 MaxToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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