Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) vs Ring-2.6-1T
Which is better for the money: Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) by Alibaba or Ring-2.6-1T by InclusionAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) scores 11.0 points higher (27.6 vs 16.6) but costs 2.0× as much to run the benchmark ($1165 vs $576; both premium class). Pick Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Ring-2.6-1T.
| Metric | Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) | Ring-2.6-1T | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 27.6 | 16.6 | −39.9% Ring-2.6-1T is 39.9% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,165.00 | $575.60 | −50.6% Ring-2.6-1T is 50.6% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 55.12s | 24.45s | −55.6% Ring-2.6-1T is 55.6% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.50 / $3.00 | $0.30 / $2.50 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Video | Text |
Ring-2.6-1T vs Qwen3.8 27B (Medium): 39.9% less intelligence, 50.6% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 55.6% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- Ring-2.6-1T is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (High) scores 50.20 for $521.
Qwen3.8 27B (Medium)Ring-2.6-1TToday'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-medium/ring-2-6-1t · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/qwen3-8-27b-medium/ring-2-6-1t?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill