Model comparison
Qwen3.6 27B vs Qwen3.8 27B
Qwen3.8 27B is the stronger model overall, scoring 46.0 to 42.2 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 5 shared benchmarks.
Summary
- They share 5 benchmarks with published results for both. Qwen3.6 27B scores higher in 2 categories and Qwen3.8 27B in 3 categories; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Qwen3.8 27B leads 41.0 to 25.0.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is DTBench: 78.1% for Qwen3.6 27B and 88% for Qwen3.8 27B.
- Qwen3.8 27B is cheaper at $0.99 / $1.49 per million input/output tokens, against $0.60 / $3.60 for Qwen3.6 27B.
Side by side
| Qwen3.6 27B | Qwen3.8 27B | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 42.2 | 46.0 |
| Released | 2026-04-22 | 2026-08-14 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 262K | 262K |
| Max output | 66K | 33K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.60 | $0.99 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $3.60 | $1.49 |
| Results tracked | 11 | 31 |
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Category by category
Coding Qwen3.8 27B leads
Qwen3.6 27B: 39.1 (#163), Qwen3.8 27B: 50.5 (#44)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 37.3% | 46.6% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1593 |
| LMArena Coding | — | 1482 |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Qwen3.6 27B: —, Qwen3.8 27B: 32.9 (#57)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | — | 47.5% |
Reasoning Qwen3.8 27B leads
Qwen3.6 27B: 25.0 (#153), Qwen3.8 27B: 41.0 (#54)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 0.9% | 5.4% |
| DTBench | 78.1% | 88% |
| LMCA | 34.5% | 41.4% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 146.5 | 149.38 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | — | 42.4% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 54.5% |
| ARC-AGI-1 | — | 87.5% |
| Chess Puzzles | 22% | — |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | — | 1460 |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 7% | — |
| Surface Evolver Bench | — | 45% |
Math Qwen3.6 27B leads
Qwen3.6 27B: 48.5 (#62), Qwen3.8 27B: 37.1 (#161)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 35.1% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 91.1% | — |
| ProofBench | — | 16% |
| LMArena Math | — | 1456 |
Knowledge Qwen3.6 27B leads
Qwen3.6 27B: 52.4 (#63), Qwen3.8 27B: 41.6 (#109)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 85.9% | — |
| LMArena Expert | — | 1482 |
Multimodal Not comparable
Qwen3.6 27B: —, Qwen3.8 27B: 41.3 (#37)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1271 |
Multilingual Not comparable
Qwen3.6 27B: —, Qwen3.8 27B: 53.7 (#60)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | — | 1430 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1504 |
| LMArena French | — | 1465 |
| LMArena German | — | 1438 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1384 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1393 |
| LMArena Russian | — | 1415 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1448 |
Instruction Following Not comparable
Qwen3.6 27B: —, Qwen3.8 27B: 75.8 (#53)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | — | 1439 |
Long Context Not comparable
Qwen3.6 27B: —, Qwen3.8 27B: 44.3 (#70)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1450 |
Writing & Preference Qwen3.8 27B leads
Qwen3.6 27B: 50.3 (#181), Qwen3.8 27B: 65.8 (#43)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.6 27B | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | — | 1441 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | — | 1384 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | — | 1671 |
| EQ-Bench 4 | 1026 | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | — | 1441 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Qwen3.6 27B better than Qwen3.8 27B?
Qwen3.8 27B is the stronger model overall, scoring 46.0 to 42.2 on the Noometry Index.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6 27B or Qwen3.8 27B?
Qwen3.8 27B is cheaper. It lists at $0.99 per million input tokens and $1.49 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 27B lists at $0.60 and $3.60.
Is Qwen3.6 27B or Qwen3.8 27B better for coding?
Qwen3.8 27B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 50.5 versus 39.1 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Both accept 262K tokens.
How many benchmarks do Qwen3.6 27B and Qwen3.8 27B share?
5 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen3.6 27B has 11 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.8 27B has 31.