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Every score has a dated snapshot.

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  3. Qwen3 235B vs Qwen3.8 27B

Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 16, 2026

Qwen3 235B vs Qwen3.8 27B benchmark

In this head-to-head showdown, Qwen3 235B delivers higher overall intelligence and human-preferred responses (Elo 1,440 vs 1,398), while Qwen3 235B leads in SWE-bench software engineering benchmarks (59.4%), while Qwen3.8 27B is more budget-friendly at $0.4/1M per 1M output tokens. Review the complete breakdown below to determine which model best fits your performance and budget requirements.

Executive Comparison Verdict

Bottom Line: Choose Qwen3 235B if your priority is peak reasoning, complex code generation, and top preference Elo. Choose Qwen3.8 27B if you are optimizing for low latency, high throughput, and cost-efficient API deployment.
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Verified Head-to-Head Advantage Breakdown

8 direct benchmark disciplines evaluated across capability, speed, and cost

Qwen3 235B (4)Qwen3.8 27B (4)
Qwen3 235B
4 of 8 Wins
✓Preference Elo✓LiveBench✓SWE-bench✓GPQA Diamond
Qwen3.8 27B
4 of 8 Wins
✓Time to first token✓Output speed✓Input price✓Output price
Alibaba
Leads 4 of 8 metrics
Qwen3 235B

Open-weight Qwen3 mixture-of-experts.

235B MoEElo 1,440$0.88/1M out
Alibaba
Leads 4 of 8 metrics
Qwen3.8 27B

Alibaba open-weight 27B drop dated Aug 14 2026. Dense enough to self-host; not a frontier MoE.

27B DenseElo 1,398$0.4/1M out

Qwen 3 Series Lineage & Sibling Variants

4 models

Currently comparing Qwen3 235B vs Qwen3.8 27B. Alternative family tiers available.

Active: Qwen3 235B
Active: Qwen3.8 27B
Qwen 3 Max$4.8Qwen QwQ 32B$1.2
Top Rival Showdowns for Qwen3 235B
All Matchups
Compare vs:vs Claude Opus 4.5vs GPT-5vs Gemini 3 Provs Grok 4.6vs DeepSeek V4 Pro
Preference LeaderQwen3 235B Wins

Qwen3 235B

Δ 42 Arena Elo pts

Throughput LeaderQwen3.8 27B Wins

Qwen3.8 27B

152 tok/s

Value per Dollar LeaderQwen3.8 27B Wins

Qwen3.8 27B

$0.4 / 1M output

Capability Percentiles

Relative percentile scores computed across all active models in the benchmark catalog.

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Leaders Matchup Capability Radar

Comparing top Western standard models with China's leading frontier rival across 6 skill dimensions. Tap any spoke or dot to inspect.

Tap any node to inspect
Percentile 0–100
Head-to-Head Comparison

Overall Matchup Breakdown

Category wins across reasoning intelligence, generation speed, and token cost.

Qwen3 235B (4)vsQwen3.8 27B (5)
Qwen3 235B: 4W (44%)Overall: Qwen3.8 27BQwen3.8 27B: 5W (56%)
← Qwen3 235B1 tiesQwen3.8 27B →
🏆Qwen3 235B(4/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Benchmark
Qwen3 235BvsQwen3.8 27B
Preference Elo
1,440vs1,398+42
Coding Elo
—vs1,422
SWE-bench
59.4%vs58.8%+0.6%
LiveBench
63.5%vs60.6%+2.9%
GPQA Diamond
76.8%vs73.4%+3.4%
Qwen3 235B: 4WQwen3.8 27B: 1W
🏆Qwen3.8 27B(2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Benchmark
Qwen3 235BvsQwen3.8 27B
Output speed
74 tok/svs152 tok/s+78 tok/s
Time to first token
320 msvs140 ms+180 ms
Qwen3 235B: 0WQwen3.8 27B: 2W
🏆Qwen3.8 27B(2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Benchmark
Qwen3 235BvsQwen3.8 27B
Output price
$0.88/1Mvs$0.4/1M+$0.48/1M
Input price
$0.22/1Mvs$0.1/1M+$0.12/1M
Context window
131kvs131k
Qwen3 235B: 0WQwen3.8 27B: 2W

Side-by-Side Benchmark Matrix

Preference Elo+42
Qwen3 235B1,440
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Qwen3.8 27B1,398
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
Coding Elo
Qwen3 235B—
Qwen3.8 27B1,422
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
LiveBench+2.9%
Qwen3 235B63.5%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Qwen3.8 27B60.6%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
SWE-bench+0.6%
Qwen3 235B59.4%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Qwen3.8 27B58.8%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
GPQA Diamond+3.4%
Qwen3 235B76.8%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Qwen3.8 27B73.4%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
Time to first token+180 ms
Qwen3 235B320 ms
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Qwen3.8 27B140 ms
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
Output speed+78 tok/s
Qwen3 235B74 tok/s
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Qwen3.8 27B152 tok/s
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
Input price+$0.12/1M
Qwen3 235B$0.22/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Qwen3.8 27B$0.1/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
Output price+$0.48/1M
Qwen3 235B$0.88/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Qwen3.8 27B$0.4/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
Context window
Qwen3 235B131k
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
Qwen3.8 27B131k
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
BenchmarkQwen3 235BQwen3.8 27BAdvantage Delta
Preference Elo
1,440
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
1,398
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
+42
Coding Elo—
1,422
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
—
LiveBench
63.5%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
60.6%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
+2.9%
SWE-bench
59.4%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
58.8%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
+0.6%
GPQA Diamond
76.8%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
73.4%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
+3.4%
Time to first token
320 ms
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
140 ms
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
+180 ms
Output speed
74 tok/s
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
152 tok/s
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
+78 tok/s
Input price
$0.22/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
$0.1/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
+$0.12/1M
Output price
$0.88/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
$0.4/1M
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
+$0.48/1M
Context window
131k
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
131k
seed-bootstrap · Aug 16, 2026
—
Interactive Simulator (USD)

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Simulate monthly production API costs in USD (US Dollar).

Save up to 55% with Qwen3.8 27B
Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo
Quick Presets:
Token Ratio (In vs Out)70% In / 30% Out
RAG / Search (10% out)Coding / Chat (50% out)
Qwen3 235B$20.90 / mo
In: $7.7Out: $13.2
Qwen3.8 27B$9.50 / mo
In: $3.5Out: $6
Estimated Cost Delta

Qwen3.8 27B is estimated to save $11.40/month ($137/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

  • 1
    Qwen3 235B:Pick Qwen3 235B when repo-level coding accuracy is the constraint.
  • 2
    Qwen3.8 27B:Pick Qwen3.8 27B when you are optimizing output cost.
  • 3
    Qwen3.8 27B:Pick Qwen3.8 27B when time-to-first-token matters more than peak Elo.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsQwen3 235B

Higher SWE-bench (59.4%).

High-volume chatQwen3.8 27B

Lower output list price ($0.4/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIQwen3.8 27B

Lower TTFT (140 ms).

Long-document RAGQwen3 235B

Larger window (131k).

Screenshots / visionQwen3 235B

Qwen3 235B is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target WorkloadRecommended PickEvaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agentsQwen3 235BHigher SWE-bench (59.4%).
High-volume chatQwen3.8 27BLower output list price ($0.4/1M).
Voice / low-latency UIQwen3.8 27BLower TTFT (140 ms).
Long-document RAGQwen3 235BLarger window (131k).
Screenshots / visionQwen3 235BQwen3 235B is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

View all news
launchAug 14, 2026

Qwen3.8 27B (Aug 14): dense enough to self-host, not a frontier MoE

Alibaba open-weight 27B drop. Local/open-weight lists should see it. It will not win frontier-agents.

launchSep 20, 2025

Qwen3 235B: the open MoE Qwen, not the Max SKU

Sep 2025 open-weight mixture-of-experts. Self-host path. Don’t confuse it with Qwen 3 Max.

Community Sentiment

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CompareLLM AI Matrix

Verified Head-to-Head Telemetry

LIVE BENCHMARK
VS
Alibaba

Qwen3 235B

Elo 1,440
SWE-bench59.4%
Speed (tok/s)74 tok/s
Input / 1M Tokens$0.22/1M
Output / 1M Tokens$0.88/1M
Alibaba

Qwen3.8 27B

Elo 1,398
SWE-bench58.8%
Speed (tok/s)152 tok/s
Input / 1M Tokens$0.1/1M
Output / 1M Tokens$0.4/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Qwen3 235B or Qwen3.8 27B?
Qwen3 235B has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,440). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.
Which is better at coding, Qwen3 235B or Qwen3.8 27B?
Qwen3 235B leads SWE-bench at 59.4% vs 58.8%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.
Which is cheaper to run in production?
Qwen3.8 27B output tokens are $0.4/1M versus $0.88/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, Qwen3 235B or Qwen3.8 27B?
Qwen3.8 27B has the lower time-to-first-token (140 ms vs 320 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.
Which has the larger context window?
Qwen3 235B accepts 131k tokens versus 131k.
Can I self-host either model?
Both Qwen3 235B and Qwen3.8 27B are marked open-weights. Hosting cost is not in this table.
Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?
No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.
What does preference Elo mean on this page?
Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. Qwen3 235B and Qwen3.8 27B Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Related news

  • launch · Aug 14, 2026

    Qwen3.8 27B (Aug 14): dense enough to self-host, not a frontier MoE

  • launch · Sep 20, 2025

    Qwen3 235B: the open MoE Qwen, not the Max SKU

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All Qwen3 235B matchups →|All Qwen3.8 27B matchups →
Qwen3 235B vs Qwen 2.5 Coder 32B (previous qwen)Qwen3 235B vs Qwen QwQ 32B (next qwen)Qwen 3 Max vs Qwen3 235BQwen 2.5 Plus vs Qwen3 235BLlama 4 Maverick vs Qwen3 235BGLM-5V Turbo vs Qwen3 235B