Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) vs Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) by Alibaba or Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reasoning) by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-27.
Clear winner
Verdict
Pick Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning)
Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reasoning) vs Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning): 5.6% less intelligence, 76.6% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 86.9% faster end-to-end.
| Metric | Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) | Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 21.4 | 20.2 | −5.6% Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reas… is 5.6% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,145.36 | $2,022.49 | +76.6% Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reas… is 76.6% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 110.41s | 14.44s | −86.9% Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reas… is 86.9% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.60 / $3.60 | $0.50 / $3.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Video | Text, Image, Video |
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning)Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reasoning)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/qwen3-6-27b/qwen3-8-27b-non-reasoning · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/qwen3-6-27b/qwen3-8-27b-non-reasoning?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill