Qwen3.8 27B (Low) vs Qwen3.8 Max
Which is better for the money: Qwen3.8 27B (Low) 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 14.0 points higher (40.2 vs 26.2) but costs 3.0× as much to run the benchmark ($3172 vs $1060; flagship vs premium cost classes). Pick Qwen3.8 Max when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Qwen3.8 27B (Low).
| Metric | Qwen3.8 27B (Low) | Qwen3.8 Max | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 26.2 | 40.2 | +53.4% Qwen3.8 Max is 53.4% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,060.08 | $3,172.37 | +199.3% Qwen3.8 Max is 3.0× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 55.56s | 61.90s | +11.4% Qwen3.8 Max is 11.4% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.50 / $3.00 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Video | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.8 Max vs Qwen3.8 27B (Low): 53.4% more intelligence, 199.3% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 11.4% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Qwen3.8 27B (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
- Qwen3.8 Max is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 55.10 for $3117.
Qwen3.8 27B (Low)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/qwen3-8-27b-low/qwen3-8-max-0803 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/qwen3-8-27b-low/qwen3-8-max-0803?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill