Qwen3.8 Max (0902) vs Ring-2.6-1T
Which is better for the money: Qwen3.8 Max (0902) by Alibaba or Ring-2.6-1T by InclusionAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) scores 28.8 points higher (45.4 vs 16.6) but costs 8.6× as much to run the benchmark ($4935 vs $576; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.8 Max (0902) when you need intelligence above 16.6, and Ring-2.6-1T when 16.6 is enough.
| Metric | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Ring-2.6-1T | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 45.4 | 16.6 | −63.4% Ring-2.6-1T is 63.4% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $4,934.79 | $575.60 | −88.3% Ring-2.6-1T is 88.3% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 62.92s | 24.47s | −61.1% Ring-2.6-1T is 61.1% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $6.00 | $0.30 / $2.50 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Ring-2.6-1T vs Qwen3.8 Max (0902): 63.4% less intelligence, 88.3% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 61.1% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
- 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 Max (0902)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-max/ring-2-6-1t · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/qwen3-8-max/ring-2-6-1t?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill