# Qwen Max vs Qwen3.8 27B

> Qwen3.8 27B is the stronger model overall, scoring 46.0 to 34.7 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/qwen-max-vs-qwen3-8-27b
- Last updated: 2026-10-12
- Shared benchmarks: 17

## Summary

- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Qwen Max scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3.8 27B in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in coding, where Qwen3.8 27B leads 50.5 to 30.7.
- Qwen3.8 27B is cheaper at $0.04 / $2.30 per million input/output tokens, against $1.60 / $6.40 for Qwen Max.
- Qwen3.8 27B accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 33K.
- Qwen3.8 27B has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Qwen Max | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 34.7 | 46.0 |
| Rank | 230 | 68 |
| Context | 33K | 262K |
| Input $/M | $1.60 | $0.04 |
| Output $/M | $6.40 | $2.30 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |

## Coding

- Qwen Max: 30.7 (#292)
- Qwen3.8 27B: 50.5 (#44)

| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1288 | 1482 |
| Aider Polyglot | 21.8% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1593 |
| SciCode | — | 46.6% |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Qwen Max: —
- Qwen3.8 27B: 32.9 (#57)

| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | — | 47.5% |

## Reasoning

- Qwen Max: 25.1 (#151)
- Qwen3.8 27B: 41.0 (#54)

| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1269 | 1460 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | — | 42.4% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 54.5% |
| ARC-AGI-1 | — | 87.5% |
| CritPt | — | 5.4% |
| DTBench | — | 88% |
| LMCA | — | 41.4% |
| Surface Evolver Bench | — | 45% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | — | 149.38 |

## Math

- Qwen Max: 22.3 (#276)
- Qwen3.8 27B: 37.1 (#161)

| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1275 | 1456 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 16.1% | — |
| ProofBench | — | 16% |
| MATH Level 5 | 67.2% | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 1% | — |

## Knowledge

- Qwen Max: 30.3 (#228)
- Qwen3.8 27B: 41.6 (#109)

| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1248 | 1482 |
| GPQA Diamond | 56.1% | — |

## Multimodal

- Qwen Max: —
- Qwen3.8 27B: 41.3 (#37)

| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1271 |

## Multilingual

- Qwen Max: 41.8 (#202)
- Qwen3.8 27B: 53.7 (#60)

| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1263 | 1430 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1254 | 1504 |
| LMArena French | 1330 | 1465 |
| LMArena German | 1254 | 1438 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1205 | 1384 |
| LMArena Korean | 1142 | 1393 |
| LMArena Russian | 1274 | 1415 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1290 | 1448 |

## Instruction Following

- Qwen Max: 66.5 (#208)
- Qwen3.8 27B: 75.8 (#53)

| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1262 | 1439 |

## Long Context

- Qwen Max: 39.4 (#180)
- Qwen3.8 27B: 44.3 (#70)

| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1288 | 1450 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | 66.7% | — |

## Writing & Preference

- Qwen Max: 47.8 (#205)
- Qwen3.8 27B: 65.8 (#43)

| Benchmark | Qwen Max | Qwen3.8 27B |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1282 | 1441 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1248 | 1384 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1277 | 1441 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | — | 1671 |

## FAQ

### Is Qwen Max better than Qwen3.8 27B?

Qwen3.8 27B is the stronger model overall, scoring 46.0 to 34.7 on the Noometry Index.

### Which is cheaper, Qwen Max or Qwen3.8 27B?

Qwen3.8 27B is cheaper. It lists at $0.04 per million input tokens and $2.30 per million output tokens; Qwen Max lists at $1.60 and $6.40.

### Is Qwen Max or Qwen3.8 27B better for coding?

Qwen3.8 27B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 50.5 versus 30.7 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3.8 27B does, with 262K tokens against 33K.

### How many benchmarks do Qwen Max and Qwen3.8 27B share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen Max has 23 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.8 27B has 31.