Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) vs Qwen3.8 Max
Which is better for the money: Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) by Alibaba or Qwen3.8 Max 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 Max scores 18.8 points higher (40.2 vs 21.4) but costs 2.8× as much to run the benchmark ($3172 vs $1145; flagship vs premium cost classes). Pick Qwen3.8 Max when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning).
| Metric | Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) | Qwen3.8 Max | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 21.4 | 40.2 | +87.9% Qwen3.8 Max is 87.9% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,145.36 | $3,172.37 | +177.0% Qwen3.8 Max is 2.8× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 111.40s | 61.90s | −44.4% Qwen3.8 Max is 44.4% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.60 / $3.60 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Video | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.8 Max vs Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning): 87.9% more intelligence, 177.0% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 44.4% faster end-to-end.
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 Max is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 55.10 for $3117.
Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning)Qwen3.8 MaxToday'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-max-0803 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/qwen3-6-27b/qwen3-8-max-0803?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill