Grok 4.3 (High) vs Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh)
Which is better for the money: Grok 4.3 (High) by SpaceXAI or Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) 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 27B (Xhigh) scores 8.8 points higher (33.7 vs 24.9) but costs 3.7× as much to run the benchmark ($1336 vs $363; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) when you need intelligence above 24.9, and Grok 4.3 (High) when 24.9 is enough.
| Metric | Grok 4.3 (High) | Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 24.9 | 33.7 | +35.3% Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) is 35.3% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $363.24 | $1,336.09 | +267.8% Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) is 3.7× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 30.35s | 59.76s | +96.9% Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) is 96.9% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $1.25 / $2.50 | $0.50 / $3.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) vs Grok 4.3 (High): 35.3% more intelligence, 267.8% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 96.9% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Grok 4.3 (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
- Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Grok 4.3 (High)Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh)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/grok-4-3/qwen3-8-27b · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/grok-4-3/qwen3-8-27b?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill