Noometry

Alternatives

Cheaper Qwen Alternatives in October 2026

The strongest lower-cost alternative to Qwen as of October 2026 is GPT-6 Luna from OpenAI: 3.5 points behind Qwen3.8 Max, 15.0× cheaper per token. Compared against Qwen3.8 Max, Qwen's current top model.

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  1. GPT-6 Luna OpenAI

    3.5 points behind Qwen3.8 Max, 15.0× cheaper per token.

    Score 53.3, $0.20 per M tokens blended.Compare with Qwen3.8 Max

  2. Claude Haiku 5.5 Anthropic

    7.3 points behind Qwen3.8 Max, 15.0× cheaper per token.

    Score 49.5, $0.20 per M tokens blended.Compare with Qwen3.8 Max

  3. GLM-5.3-Flash Z.ai (Zhipu)

    4.9 points behind Qwen3.8 Max, 12.6× cheaper per token; open weights.

    Score 51.8, $0.24 per M tokens blended.Compare with Qwen3.8 Max

  4. DeepSeek V4 Flash DeepSeek

    3.1 points behind Qwen3.8 Max, 11.4× cheaper per token; open weights.

    Score 53.6, $0.26 per M tokens blended.Compare with Qwen3.8 Max

  5. MiMo-V2.6-Pro Xiaomi

    6.5 points behind Qwen3.8 Max, 5.5× cheaper per token; open weights.

    Score 50.3, $0.54 per M tokens blended.Compare with Qwen3.8 Max

  6. Gemini 3 Flash Preview Google

    4.5 points behind Qwen3.8 Max, 2.7× cheaper per token.

    Score 52.3, $1.13 per M tokens blended.Compare with Qwen3.8 Max

  7. Muse Spark 1.3 Meta

    2.0 points behind Qwen3.8 Max, 1.5× cheaper per token.

    Score 54.8, $2 per M tokens blended.Compare with Qwen3.8 Max

More: All alternatives, Open-source, For coding

Frequently asked questions

What is the best alternative to Qwen?

The strongest lower-cost alternative to Qwen as of October 2026 is GPT-6 Luna from OpenAI: 3.5 points behind Qwen3.8 Max, 15.0× cheaper per token. Compared against Qwen3.8 Max, Qwen's current top model.

How were these alternatives chosen?

Each is the highest-ranked model from a different provider that costs less per token and scores within 8 points, compared on the Noometry Index against Qwen3.8 Max.