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Model comparison

Qwen3-235B-A22B vs Qwen 3.8 27B

Two Qwen tiers compared on the figures that decide which one a workload actually needs.

Catalog record checked September 26, 2026Individual provider fields may changeEvidence confidence: High — see receipts below

Qwen

Qwen3-235B-A22B

Balanced · Open weights

vs

Qwen

Qwen 3.8 27B

Budget · Open weights

AI model capability comparison
SpecificationQwen3-235B-A22BQwen 3.8 27B
ProviderQwenQwen
TierBalancedBudget
Context window128KWinner: 262K
Max output33KNot verifiedUnverified
Input / 1M tokens$0.70Winner: $0.50
Output / 1M tokensWinner: $2.80$3
WeightsOpenOpen
Parameters235B total / 22B active (MoE)27B dense VLM (Gated DeltaNet hybrid)
Reasoning levelslow, high, maxlow, medium, xhigh
Modalitiestexttext, image, video
LicenseApache 2.0Apache 2.0
API model idqwen3-235b-a22bqwen3.8-27b
ReleasedApril 29, 2025August 13, 2026
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (2026-09-26)9.5Not verifiedUnverified
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index [xhigh] (2026-09-26)Not verifiedUnverified33.7

Prices are USD per million tokens at standard rates, excluding batch and caching discounts. Bold indicates the better figure where one is objectively better. Values we could not confirm from the provider are shown as “Not verified” rather than estimated.

Benchmark receipts

Where each score comes from, and how far it can be compared across models.

  • 2026-09-26
    Artificial Analysis

    Composite index blending reasoning, knowledge, and coding evals into one 0–100 score.

    Comparable with caveatOnly same-version scores are comparable. v4.3.2 was rebaselined (the top score fell from 66 on v4.1.1 to ~58), so v4.1.1 figures must not be compared with v4.3.2 figures — check measuredAt.

Pricing tiers

Qwen3-235B-A22B: Model Studio International $0.70 input / $2.80 output per MTok (non-thinking); thinking-mode output $8.40. Open weights (Apache 2.0) for self-hosting; 32,768-token recommended output.

Qwen 3.8 27B: Hosted qwen3.8-27b lists $0.50/$3.00 per MTok on Alibaba Cloud Model Studio (API launched 2026-08-19). Open weights (Apache 2.0) for self-hosting.

BalancedOpen weightsRecord checked September 26, 2026

Qwen3-235B-A22B

Qwen3-235B-A22B is Alibaba's widely deployed open-weight MoE — 235B/22B, strong price-performance.

Best for

  • Open-weight deployments
  • Self-hosting
  • Multilingual

Watch out

Needs multi-GPU for the 235B total; hosted rates vary.

BudgetOpen weightsRecord checked September 26, 2026

Qwen 3.8 27B

Qwen 3.8 27B is Alibaba's compact deployment-friendly dense VLM — 262K native context (1M via YaRN), Apache 2.0 weights, distinct from the hosted Qwen 3.8 Max API.

Best for

  • Self-hosting on a single node
  • Multimodal input at small scale
  • Long-context on modest hardware

Watch out

Dense 27B means higher memory per token than an MoE of equal active size; video input is multimodal-input only.

When the cheaper one wins

Qwen3-235B-A22B is cheaper on output at $2.80 per million tokens against $3 for Qwen 3.8 27B — about 1.1×. Use the cheaper tier for classification, extraction, summarisation, and any task where the expensive model’s extra score does not change the accepted output. The expensive one only pays if your hardest task actually fails on the cheap tier. These are standard-tier API rates, excluding batch and cache discounts.

Run the model picker

Evidence confidence: High

How strong and complete the evidence behind this comparison is — not a prediction of which model is better.

  • Pricing verified on both sides — Input and output rates are verified for both models.
  • 4/5 core specs verified on both sides — Not published for at least one side: max output.
  • 1 shared named benchmark with differing scores — Measured on: Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.
  • Verified within the last 90 days — Newest catalog check was 2 days ago.
  • Both models carry source citations — Each side has at least two catalog sources on record.

Source receipts

Each catalog figure was checked against the provider or an independent second source on the date shown.

Related comparisons

Diving deeper on one model? Qwen3-235B-A22B · Qwen 3.8 27B

Common questions

Qwen3-235B-A22B vs Qwen 3.8 27B

Answered from the verified figures on this page rather than general guidance.

Is Qwen3-235B-A22B or Qwen 3.8 27B cheaper for input?
Qwen 3.8 27B is cheaper at $0.50 per million input tokens, against $0.70 for Qwen3-235B-A22B — roughly 1.4× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; Qwen3-235B-A22B has tiered pricing: Model Studio International $0.70 input / $2.80 output per MTok (non-thinking); thinking-mode output $8.40. Open weights (Apache 2.0) for self-hosting; 32,768-token recommended output. Qwen 3.8 27B has tiered pricing: Hosted qwen3.8-27b lists $0.50/$3.00 per MTok on Alibaba Cloud Model Studio (API launched 2026-08-19). Open weights (Apache 2.0) for self-hosting.
Is Qwen3-235B-A22B or Qwen 3.8 27B cheaper for output?
Qwen3-235B-A22B is cheaper at $2.80 per million output tokens, against $3 for Qwen 3.8 27B — roughly 1.1× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; Qwen3-235B-A22B has tiered pricing: Model Studio International $0.70 input / $2.80 output per MTok (non-thinking); thinking-mode output $8.40. Open weights (Apache 2.0) for self-hosting; 32,768-token recommended output. Qwen 3.8 27B has tiered pricing: Hosted qwen3.8-27b lists $0.50/$3.00 per MTok on Alibaba Cloud Model Studio (API launched 2026-08-19). Open weights (Apache 2.0) for self-hosting.
Which has the larger context window, Qwen3-235B-A22B or Qwen 3.8 27B?
Qwen 3.8 27B accepts 262K tokens against 128K for Qwen3-235B-A22B. This only matters if you routinely send very long documents or large codebases.
Do Qwen3-235B-A22B and Qwen 3.8 27B support the same reasoning levels?
Qwen3-235B-A22B exposes low, high, max, while Qwen 3.8 27B exposes low, medium, xhigh.
Should I use Qwen3-235B-A22B or Qwen 3.8 27B?
Qwen3-235B-A22B is the balanced tier and Qwen 3.8 27B the budget tier. The useful question is whether your hardest task actually fails on the cheaper one — most production volume such as classification, extraction and summarisation does not.

Next step

Choosing between them

The verified figures that separate this pair, computed from the catalog rather than restated boilerplate.

  • Input price: Qwen 3.8 27B costs $0.50 per 1M tokens versus $0.70 for Qwen3-235B-A22B — a 1.4x difference at the headline tier.
  • Context: Qwen 3.8 27B takes 262K against 128K for Qwen3-235B-A22B — only decisive if your prompts approach the smaller window.
  • Positioning: Qwen3-235B-A22B sits in the balanced tier, Qwen 3.8 27B in the budget tier — most production volume (classification, extraction, summarisation) does not need the pricier tier.
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