Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) vs Qwen3.8 27B (Medium)
Which is better for the money: Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) by Alibaba or Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) 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 27B (Xhigh) scores 6.1 points higher (33.7 vs 27.6) but costs 1.1× as much to run the benchmark ($1459 vs $1278; both premium class). Pick Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Qwen3.8 27B (Medium).
| Metric | Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) | Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 33.7 | 27.6 | −18.1% Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) is 18.1% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,458.94 | $1,277.59 | −12.4% Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) is 12.4% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 61.13s | 58.08s | −5.0% Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) is 5.0% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.50 / $3.00 | $0.50 / $3.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Video | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) vs Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh): 18.1% less intelligence, 12.4% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 5.0% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh)Qwen3.8 27B (Medium)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/qwen3-8-27b/qwen3-8-27b-medium · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/qwen3-8-27b/qwen3-8-27b-medium?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill