--- title: "Is Qwen3.8 27B still undominated? · Undominated.ai" canonical: https://undominated.ai/check/qwen__qwen3.8-27b/ description: "Qwen3.8 27B: whether it is still undominated. If anything in this catalogue is both better and cheaper, it is named, as of Sep 23, 2026. Unrated stays unrated." --- # Is Qwen3.8 27B still undominated? · Undominated.ai > Qwen3.8 27B: whether it is still undominated. If anything in this catalogue is both better and cheaper, it is named, as of Sep 23, 2026. Unrated stays unrated. # Is Qwen3.8 27B a good deal? Whether anything in this catalogue beats Qwen3.8 27B on both quality and price, and what you give up if it does. A computation on the current catalogue, not an opinion. 13 undominated of 136 · Sep 23, 2026 [1 · Choose & set workload](#check-input)[2 · Read verdict](#check-verdict)[3 · Inspect alternatives](#check-options) As of Sep 23, 2026, Qwen3.8 27B is dominated for Balanced on LMArena. GLM 5.3 Flash scores 32.6 higher and costs 78% less, with a covering envelope. 13 of 136 rated, priced standard models are undominated. [Inspect model evidence](/models/qwen__qwen3.8-27b/) [Compare differences & requirements](/compare/?models=qwen%2Fqwen3.8-27b%2Cz-ai%2Fglm-5.3-flash) Current model Qwen3.8 27B Balanced 3 tokens in per 1 out Balanced Summarise Chat Code gen Agentic Monthly spend (USD) Used only to say how many months a named switching cost would take to earn back. Leave blank to skip. Switching cost (USD) GLM 5.3 Flash is both better and cheaper than Qwen3.8 27B: 32.6 points higher on LMArena and 78% less per million tokens, $0.83 cheaper at this mix. [Qwen3.8 27B](https://undominated.ai/models/qwen__qwen3.8-27b/) LMArena Elo · higher is better Scale starts at 1040 Elo ** 1439.3 Effective $/M · Balanced · lower is better ** $1.06/M [GLM 5.3 Flash](https://undominated.ai/models/z-ai__glm-5.3-flash/) LMArena Elo · higher is better Scale starts at 1040 Elo ** 1471.9 Effective $/M · Balanced · lower is better ** $0.237/M Qwen3.8 27B takes text, image, video, returns up to 131,072 tokens from a 1,000,000-token context, and is listed by 16 sellers. Open weights, so it can also be self-hosted. Compared against 136 rated, priced models on this lens: 1 model dominates it and gives up nothing, 5 more dominate it but give something up. Qwen3.8 27B scores 1439.3 at $1.06 per million tokens for this mix. ## Envelope-safe replacements Each row scores at least as high, costs no more, and covers this model’s context, output, modalities, tools, and reasoning. A cheaper narrower model is not listed here. | Model | LMArena | Effective $/M | You save | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [GLM 5.3 Flash](/models/z-ai__glm-5.3-flash/) | 1471.9 +32.6 | $0.237/M | 78% | ## Higher score, lower price, named losses Not a drop-in. The loss is why these are not a recommendation. | Model | LMArena | Effective $/M | You give up | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [GLM 5.2](/models/z-ai__glm-5.2/) | 1466.9 | $0.998/M | image, video | | [MiMo-V2.5-Pro](/models/xiaomi__mimo-v2.5-pro/) | 1464.8 | $0.544/M | image, video | | [Qwen3.7 Plus](/models/qwen__qwen3.7-plus/) | 1454.2 | $0.560/M | video | | [GLM 5](/models/z-ai__glm-5/) | 1446.3 | $0.930/M | context, max output, image, video | | [Kimi K2.5](/models/moonshotai__kimi-k2.5/) | 1445.6 | $0.900/M | context, video | 136 rated, priced standard models. Chartreuse is the frontier. Cobalt is the model you named, when it is not on the staircase. Copy watch URL [Open the frontier](/frontier/) The link keeps the model and mix, using the current catalogue. Monthly spend and switching cost stay in this browser tab and are left out of the link. ## Saved decision references Save the model, workload, catalogue date and capability-preservation rule in this browser. Spend, switching cost and bill contents are not saved. No account or notifications. Constraint: replacements must preserve the model’s capabilities; any losses remain named trade-offs. Historical decisions cannot be fully replayed from saved references: past prices, scores and capability evidence are not stored. Save this reference ## Continue your investigation - [Build a shortlist](/compare/) - [Inspect alternatives](/alternatives/) - [Check billing conditions](/traps/) - [Read model evidence](/models/)