GPT-5 Mini vs Qwen3.8 27B
Qwen3.8 27B leads GPT-5 Mini on coding, 74.2 to 34.2 on the Vibe Coding Index, and GPT-5 Mini costs 1.3x less per output token ($2.00 vs $2.55 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 59 benchmarks have a result for both.
GPT-5 Mini or Qwen3.8 27B: which to pick
Pick Qwen3.8 27B for coding: it scores 74.2 on the Vibe Coding Index against 34.2 for GPT-5 Mini.
Pick GPT-5 Mini for output tokens 1.3x cheaper ($2.00 vs $2.55 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.08 against $1.26).
- Shared results
- 59
- GPT-5 Mini only
- 42
- Qwen3.8 27B only
- 26
- Like-for-like categories
- 6 of 9
Only benchmarks that tested both models count toward a pick; a result only one model has is shown but not compared.
Which one for your work
Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
Qwen3.8 27B
Qwen3.8 27B scores 74.2 against 34.2.
2 and 4 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Qwen3.8 27B
Qwen3.8 27B leads, 33.7 against 20.6.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Qwen3.8 27B has a AA Agentic Index result, 45.8.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
Qwen3.8 27B
Qwen3.8 27B leads, 88.9% against 80.3%.
Same board, both measured
Math
AIME
No call
Only GPT-5 Mini has a AIME result, 91.5%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
Qwen3.8 27B
Qwen3.8 27B leads, 84.3% against 82.2%.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only GPT-5 Mini has a Design Arena: websites result, 1125.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Qwen3.8 27B
Qwen3.8 27B takes 1M tokens against 400K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
GPT-5 Mini
GPT-5 Mini $0.0013, Qwen3.8 27B $0.0017 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
GPT-5 Mini
GPT-5 Mini $0.08, Qwen3.8 27B $1.26.
Published attempt cost and pass rate
At a glance
- Coding index
- GPT-5 Mini 34.2 from 2 benchmarks, Qwen3.8 27B 74.2 from 4 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Coding, 18.9 points apart on average over 6 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI): GPT-5 Mini 14.2% against Qwen3.8 27B 64.8%, 50.7 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- GPT-5 Mini $2.00 against Qwen3.8 27B $2.55 per million output tokens, 1.3x apart.
- Context window
- GPT-5 Mini takes 400K tokens, Qwen3.8 27B 1M.
Benchmark by benchmark
First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.
| Category | GPT-5 Mini | Bars | Qwen3.8 27B | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 1 | 5 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 2 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 11 | ||
| Math | 0 | 3 | ||
| Knowledge | 3 | 6 | ||
| General | 0 | 28 | ||
| All shared boards | 4 | 55 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index15
| Benchmark | GPT-5 Mini | Qwen3.8 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | 59.8% | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| SWE-bench Multilingual | 39.7% | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| LiveBench coding | Not measured | 86.8% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena WebDev | Not measured | 1593 | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| AA Coding Index | Not measured | 68.1 | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 86.6% | 84.0% | GPT-5 Mini |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 60.8% | 86.0% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 14.2% | 64.8% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | Not measured | 14.2% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | Not measured | 39.1% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 58.4% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 38.1% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 67.8% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 83.8% | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| SciCode | 39.0% | 46.6% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 33.3% | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| Terminal-Bench | 34.8% | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| WeirdML | 52.7% | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1406 | 1483 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1394 | 1478 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena WebDev: React | Not measured | 1602 | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | Not measured | 1570 | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | Not measured | 1577 | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 15 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | GPT-5 Mini | Qwen3.8 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 20.6 | 33.7 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 145.3 | 151.7 | Qwen3.8 27B |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index13 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | GPT-5 Mini | Qwen3.8 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | Not measured | 45.8 | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LiveBench research | Not measured | 59.4% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LiveBench browser | Not measured | 32.0% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | Not measured | 27.9% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | Not measured | 48.5% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 30.9% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 36.1% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 59.7% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 71.1% | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| APEX-Agents | Not measured | 47.5% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | -$31 | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) | 55.5% | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 28 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index011
| Benchmark | GPT-5 Mini | Qwen3.8 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 80.3% | 88.9% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LiveBench reasoning | Not measured | 80.0% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 78.9% | 83.9% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 82.8% | 90.5% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 21.5% | 33.9% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 75.0% | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| ARC-AGI | 54.3% | 87.5% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 4.4% | 42.4% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| Chess puzzles | 24.0% | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 10.0% | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| VPCT | 40.2% | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1380 | 1459 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1379 | 1479 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1383 | 1461 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1202 | 1285 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1210 | 1295 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 70.3% | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index03
| Benchmark | GPT-5 Mini | Qwen3.8 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 91.5% | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| MATH 500 (Vals AI) | 94.8% | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| MGSM (Vals AI) | 92.6% | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| AA Math Index | 90.7 | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 90.7% | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 86.7% | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 46.7% | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 12.2% | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| ProofBench | 9.0% | 16.0% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| MATH level 5 | 97.8% | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1378 | 1455 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1380 | 1458 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index36
| Benchmark | GPT-5 Mini | Qwen3.8 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 82.2% | 84.3% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 81.8% | 82.4% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 68.5% | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 60.2% | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 75.2% | 70.8% | GPT-5 Mini |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 66.9% | 64.9% | GPT-5 Mini |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | 96.1% | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 43.0% | 28.7% | GPT-5 Mini |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 83.7% | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | 21.6% | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1371 | 1467 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1380 | 1437 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1375 | 1447 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1358 | 1438 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| FACTS Benchmark Suite | 38.6% | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index9 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | GPT-5 Mini | Qwen3.8 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1125 | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1103 | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1129 | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1131 | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1036 | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1114 | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1091 | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1125 | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| LiveBench design | Not measured | 75.9% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index028
| Benchmark | GPT-5 Mini | Qwen3.8 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench data analysis | Not measured | 76.6% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 43.0% | 52.4% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 80.6% | 83.8% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| IFBench | 75.4% | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 72.3% | 82.0% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| DTBench | 80.5% | 88.0% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMCA | 34.2% | 41.4% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| Fiction.LiveBench | 69.4% | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| Creative writing (Lech Mazur) | 83.1% | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| Surface Evolver Bench | Not measured | 45.0% | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Text | 1373 | 1440 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1357 | 1436 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1325 | 1383 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Vision | 1202 | 1269 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Text: English | 1379 | 1448 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1363 | 1428 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1386 | 1501 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Text: German | 1366 | 1443 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1341 | 1387 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1308 | 1384 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Text: French | 1386 | 1465 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1354 | 1449 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1362 | 1415 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1378 | 1439 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1363 | 1440 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1355 | 1448 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1344 | 1405 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1340 | 1393 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1216 | 1267 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1214 | 1326 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1199 | 1281 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Vision: humor | 1205 | 1235 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LMArena Vision: captioning | 1217 | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| LMArena Vision: recognizing things | 1226 | Not measured | Only GPT-5 Mini measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1181 | 1237 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| Neither model has a result on the other 11 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | GPT-5 Mini | Qwen3.8 27B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 5 boards here | |||
What each workload costs
Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.
Chat turn
1K input + 500 output tokens
GPT-5 Mini costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
GPT-5 Mini costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
GPT-5 Mini costs less
Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.
Specification differences
The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.
| Specification | OpenAI GPT-5 Mini | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | OpenAI | Qwen |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | August 7, 2025 | August 14, 2026 |
| Context window | 400K | 1M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.25 | $0.425 |
| Output $/Mtok | $2.00 | $2.55 |
| Coding index | 34.2 | 74.2 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 2 | 4 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.08 | $1.26 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is GPT-5 Mini better than Qwen3.8 27B for coding?
Pick Qwen3.8 27B for coding: it scores 74.2 on the Vibe Coding Index against 34.2 for GPT-5 Mini. Pick GPT-5 Mini for output tokens 1.3x cheaper ($2.00 vs $2.55 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.08 against $1.26).
Which is cheaper, GPT-5 Mini or Qwen3.8 27B?
GPT-5 Mini costs $0.25 per million input tokens and $2.00 per million output tokens; Qwen3.8 27B costs $0.425 and $2.55. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, GPT-5 Mini costs $0.08 and Qwen3.8 27B $1.26.
Which has the bigger context window, GPT-5 Mini or Qwen3.8 27B?
Qwen3.8 27B, with 1M tokens against 400K.
How many benchmarks is the GPT-5 Mini vs Qwen3.8 27B comparison based on?
59 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. GPT-5 Mini's coding index rests on 2 independent benchmarks and Qwen3.8 27B's on 4. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.