MiniMax-M3 vs Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh)
Which is better for the money: MiniMax-M3 by MiniMax 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 4.5 points higher (33.7 vs 29.2) but costs 2.5× as much to run the benchmark ($1336 vs $538; both premium class). Pick Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise MiniMax-M3.
| Metric | MiniMax-M3 | Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 29.2 | 33.7 | +15.4% Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) is 15.4% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $537.98 | $1,336.09 | +148.4% Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) is 2.5× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 24.32s | 59.76s | +145.7% Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) is 145.7% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.30 / $1.20 | $0.50 / $3.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Video | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) vs MiniMax-M3: 15.4% more intelligence, 148.4% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 145.7% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- MiniMax-M3 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (High) scores 50.20 for $521.
- Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
MiniMax-M3Qwen3.8 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/minimax-m3/qwen3-8-27b · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/minimax-m3/qwen3-8-27b?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill