GPT-6 Astra versus Qwen3.8 Max 0902

Two models head to head

GPT-6 Astra and Qwen3.8 Max 0902 are two frontier models, the ones you pick when quality comes first, one from OpenAI, the other from Alibaba Cloud (Qwen). GPT-6 Astra was released on September 4, 2026, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 on 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.

What the benchmarks say

On our capability index, GPT-6 Astra scores 94.7 out of 100 and Qwen3.8 Max 0902 88.4. GPT-6 Astra leads by 6.3 points.

On the 3 benchmarks reported for both, GPT-6 Astra wins 2 times and Qwen3.8 Max 0902 0:

• GPQA Diamond (PhD-level science questions): GPT-6 Astra 95.8%, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 92.3%
• OTIS Mock AIME (competition mathematics problems): GPT-6 Astra 100%, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 100%
• FrontierMath (very hard research-level mathematics): GPT-6 Astra 93.7%, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 65.6%

Budget

GPT-6 Astra costs $10 per million input tokens and $50 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 $0.30 with GPT-6 Astra versus $0.052 with Qwen3.8 Max 0902. Qwen3.8 Max 0902 is 5.8 times cheaper, a gap that adds up quickly over 1,000 tasks: $248 difference.

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

Context and capabilities

GPT-6 Astra 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-6 Astra yes, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 yes. Tool calling: GPT-6 Astra yes, Qwen3.8 Max 0902 yes. Image input: GPT-6 Astra 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-6 Astra for a higher capability index.
• Choose Qwen3.8 Max 0902 for a lower cost.

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