Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) vs Qwen3.8 Max
Which is better for the money: Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) 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 6.5 points higher (40.2 vs 33.7) but costs 2.4× as much to run the benchmark ($3172 vs $1336; flagship vs premium cost classes). Pick Qwen3.8 Max when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh).
| Metric | Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) | Qwen3.8 Max | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 33.7 | 40.2 | +19.3% Qwen3.8 Max is 19.3% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,336.09 | $3,172.37 | +137.4% Qwen3.8 Max is 2.4× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 60.71s | 61.90s | +2.0% Qwen3.8 Max is 2.0% 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 (Xhigh): 19.3% more intelligence, 137.4% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 2.0% slower 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 Max is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 55.10 for $3117.
Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh)Qwen3.8 MaxToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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