Model comparison

Qwen 3.8 27B vs Qwen3-Max

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

Qwen 3.8 27B

Budget · Open weights

Qwen

Qwen3-Max

Frontier

AI model capability comparison
Specification	Qwen 3.8 27B	Qwen3-Max
Provider
Provider	Qwen	Qwen
Tier
Tier	Budget	Frontier
Context window
Context window	262K	262K
Max output
Max output	Not verifiedUnverified	Not verifiedUnverified
Input / 1M tokens
Input / 1M tokens	Winner: $0.50	$1.20
Output / 1M tokens
Output / 1M tokens	Winner: $3	$6
Weights
Weights	Open	Closed
Parameters
Parameters	27B dense VLM (Gated DeltaNet hybrid)	>1T (proprietary)
Reasoning levels
Reasoning levels	low, medium, xhigh	low, high, max
Modalities
Modalities	text, image, video	text
License
License	Apache 2.0	Not disclosedUnverified
API model id
API model id	qwen3.8-27b	qwen3-max
Released
Released	August 13, 2026	September 23, 2025
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index [xhigh] (2026-09-26)
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index [xhigh] (2026-09-26)	33.7	Not verifiedUnverified
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (2026-09-26)
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (2026-09-26)	Not verifiedUnverified	15.6

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 (AA-estimated)
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

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.

Qwen3-Max: Model Studio International $1.20/$6.00 per MTok up to 32K input; $2.40/$12 for 32K–128K; $3/$15 for 128K–256K. The qwen3-max alias now equals qwen3-max-2026-01-23. Proprietary, API-only.

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.

FrontierRecord checked September 26, 2026

Qwen3-Max

Qwen3-Max is Alibaba's proprietary 1-trillion-parameter API model with multimodal input.

Best for

Agentic coding
Multimodal knowledge work
Long-context via API

Watch out

Max line is proprietary/API-only (no published weights). Per-provider prices differ.

When the cheaper one wins

Qwen 3.8 27B is cheaper on output at $3 per million tokens against $6 for Qwen3-Max — about 2.0×. 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.

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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.

Qwen 3.8 27B: HuggingFace — Qwen3.8-27B model card (accessed 2026-08-29)
Qwen 3.8 27B: LiveBench Leaderboard (Qwen 3.8 27B row) (accessed 2026-08-29)
Qwen 3.8 27B: Alibaba Cloud Model Studio pricing (qwen3.8-27b $0.50/$3.00) (accessed 2026-09-26)
Qwen3-Max: Alibaba Cloud Model Studio pricing (qwen3-max tiers) (accessed 2026-09-26)
Qwen3-Max: Alibaba Cloud — Qwen3-Max: Just Scale It (accessed 2026-09-26)
Qwen3-Max: AI Release Tracker — Qwen3-Max (accessed 2026-08-29)

Related comparisons

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

Common questions

Qwen 3.8 27B vs Qwen3-Max

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

Is Qwen 3.8 27B or Qwen3-Max cheaper for input?

Qwen 3.8 27B is cheaper at $0.50 per million input tokens, against $1.20 for Qwen3-Max — roughly 2.4× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; 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. Qwen3-Max has tiered pricing: Model Studio International $1.20/$6.00 per MTok up to 32K input; $2.40/$12 for 32K–128K; $3/$15 for 128K–256K. The qwen3-max alias now equals qwen3-max-2026-01-23. Proprietary, API-only.

Is Qwen 3.8 27B or Qwen3-Max cheaper for output?

Qwen 3.8 27B is cheaper at $3 per million output tokens, against $6 for Qwen3-Max — roughly 2.0× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; 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. Qwen3-Max has tiered pricing: Model Studio International $1.20/$6.00 per MTok up to 32K input; $2.40/$12 for 32K–128K; $3/$15 for 128K–256K. The qwen3-max alias now equals qwen3-max-2026-01-23. Proprietary, API-only.

Which has the larger context window, Qwen 3.8 27B or Qwen3-Max?

Both accept about 262K tokens of context, so document length will not decide between them.

Do Qwen 3.8 27B and Qwen3-Max support the same reasoning levels?

Qwen 3.8 27B exposes low, medium, xhigh, while Qwen3-Max exposes low, high, max.

Should I use Qwen 3.8 27B or Qwen3-Max?

Qwen 3.8 27B is the budget tier and Qwen3-Max the frontier 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.

Can I self-host Qwen 3.8 27B or Qwen3-Max?

Qwen 3.8 27B publishes open weights, but self-hosting and third-party provider access depend on the licence, hardware, serving support, and availability. Qwen3-Max is a closed model whose supported access paths are controlled by its provider.

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 $1.20 for Qwen3-Max — a 2.4x difference at the headline tier.
Deployment: Qwen 3.8 27B publishes weights you can self-host; the other is API-only.
Positioning: Qwen 3.8 27B sits in the budget tier, Qwen3-Max in the frontier tier — most production volume (classification, extraction, summarisation) does not need the pricier tier.

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