Muse Spark 1.2 (Xhigh) vs Qwen3.8 27B (Medium)
Which is better for the money: Muse Spark 1.2 (Xhigh) by Meta or Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) 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
Muse Spark 1.2 (Xhigh) scores 12.0 points higher (39.6 vs 27.6) but costs 1.2× as much to run the benchmark ($1385 vs $1165; both premium class). Pick Muse Spark 1.2 (Xhigh) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Qwen3.8 27B (Medium).
| Metric | Muse Spark 1.2 (Xhigh) | Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 39.6 | 27.6 | −30.3% Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) is 30.3% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,385.40 | $1,165.00 | −15.9% Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) is 15.9% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 20.85s | 55.12s | +164.4% Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) is 164.4% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $1.25 / $4.25 | $0.50 / $3.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) vs Muse Spark 1.2 (Xhigh): 30.3% less intelligence, 15.9% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 164.4% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Muse Spark 1.2 (Xhigh) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Muse Spark 1.2 (Xhigh)Qwen3.8 27B (Medium)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
Compare something else
Agents:
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/muse-spark-1-2/qwen3-8-27b-medium · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/muse-spark-1-2/qwen3-8-27b-medium?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill