Qwen3.5 122B A10B (Reasoning) vs Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Qwen3.5 122B A10B (Reasoning) by Alibaba or Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-27.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) scores 5.8 points higher (21.4 vs 15.6) but costs 1.7× as much to run the benchmark ($1145 vs $661; both premium class). Pick Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Qwen3.5 122B A10B (Reasoning).
| Metric | Qwen3.5 122B A10B (Reasoning) | Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 15.6 | 21.4 | +37.2% Qwen3.6 27B (Reasonin… is 37.2% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $661.29 | $1,145.36 | +73.2% Qwen3.6 27B (Reasonin… is 73.2% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 21.24s | 110.87s | +422.0% Qwen3.6 27B (Reasonin… is 422.0% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.40 / $3.20 | $0.60 / $3.60 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) vs Qwen3.5 122B A10B (Reasoning): 37.2% more intelligence, 73.2% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 422.0% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Qwen3.5 122B A10B (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (High) scores 50.20 for $521.
- Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Qwen3.5 122B A10B (Reasoning)Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning)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/qwen3-5-122b-a10b/qwen3-6-27b · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/qwen3-5-122b-a10b/qwen3-6-27b?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill