Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) vs Qwen3.8 27B (Low)
Which is better for the money: Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) by Alibaba or Qwen3.8 27B (Low) 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
Qwen3.8 27B (Low) scores 8.0 points higher (26.2 vs 18.2) but costs 1.3× as much to run the benchmark ($1165 vs $896; both premium class). Pick Qwen3.8 27B (Low) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning).
| Metric | Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) | Qwen3.8 27B (Low) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 18.2 | 26.2 | +44.0% Qwen3.8 27B (Low) is 44.0% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $896.39 | $1,164.93 | +30.0% Qwen3.8 27B (Low) is 30.0% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 46.29s | 55.08s | +19.0% Qwen3.8 27B (Low) is 19.0% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.38 / $2.25 | $0.50 / $3.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Video | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.8 27B (Low) vs Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning): 44.0% more intelligence, 30.0% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 19.0% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
- Qwen3.8 27B (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning)Qwen3.8 27B (Low)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/qwen3-6-35b-a3b/qwen3-8-27b-low · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/qwen3-6-35b-a3b/qwen3-8-27b-low?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill