GPT-5.5 Pro vs Qwen3.8 Max 0902

What are we comparing?

This comparison pits two frontier models, the ones you pick when quality comes first against each other: GPT-5.5 Pro and Qwen3.8 Max 0902, one from OpenAI, the other from Alibaba Cloud (Qwen). The first dates from April 23, 2026, the second from September 2, 2026.

All figures below come from public sources checked on October 22, 2026: models.dev and OpenRouter for prices and capabilities, Epoch AI for scores.

Performance

On our capability index, GPT-5.5 Pro scores 96.9 out of 100 and Qwen3.8 Max 0902 88.4. GPT-5.5 Pro leads by 8.5 points.

On the 3 benchmarks reported for both, GPT-5.5 Pro wins 2 times and Qwen3.8 Max 0902 0:

• GPQA Diamond (PhD-level science questions): GPT-5.5 Pro 93.9%, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 92.3%
• OTIS Mock AIME (competition mathematics problems): GPT-5.5 Pro 100%, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 100%
• FrontierMath (very hard research-level mathematics): GPT-5.5 Pro 87.7%, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 65.6%

Pricing

GPT-5.5 Pro costs $30 per million input tokens and $180 per million output tokens; Qwen3.8 Max 0902 costs $2 and $6.

For a typical agent task (read 20,000 tokens, write 2,000), expect $0.96 with GPT-5.5 Pro versus $0.052 with Qwen3.8 Max 0902. Qwen3.8 Max 0902 is 18.5 times cheaper, a gap that adds up quickly over 1,000 tasks: $908 difference.

Run the numbers with your own volumes in the agent cost calculator.

Under the hood

GPT-5.5 Pro reads more in one go: 1,050,000 tokens of context (roughly 1,575 pages), versus 1,000,000 for Qwen3.8 Max 0902.

Reasoning mode: GPT-5.5 Pro yes, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 yes. Tool calling: GPT-5.5 Pro yes, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 yes. Image input: GPT-5.5 Pro yes, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 yes.

Neither publishes its weights: both are used through an API.

In short

Our reading of the data:

• Choose GPT-5.5 Pro for a higher capability index.
• Choose Qwen3.8 Max 0902 for a lower cost and a more recent release.

This verdict relies on public figures; it does not replace a trial on your own tasks.