Qwen3.8 27B API pricing
Alibaba · Budget price tier · Apache 2.0 · released 2026-08. Prices in USD per 1 million tokens. Data snapshot: 2026-11-12.
Promotional rate. The price we quote is 25% off DeepInfra's standard $0.20 per 1M input tokens and $2.50 per 1M output tokens, and a promotion can end without notice.
A support ticket workload of 100K requests a month costs $116.25 on Qwen3.8 27B; the next cheaper model in the Budget price tier for this workload, Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite, does it for $112.50. The price we quote for Qwen3.8 27B has changed 17 times since 2026-08-15, most recently on 2026-11-01 when the quoted host changed (+53.1%); it is now the 152nd cheapest of 160 models in the Budget price tier. Buying from PrimeIntellect rather than at the price we quote lowers the token price by about 79%, for a quantized fp8 build. It holds the FinOps Friendly badge: top-40% Arena quality, top-30% Efficiency, not among the dearest 30%, and no stability flag.
- Input: $0.15 per 1M tokens
- Output: $1.875 per 1M tokens
- Batch API (in/out): Not published
- Prompt-cache read: $0.0375 per 1M tokens
- Context window: 1M tokens
- Arena ELO: 1436 as of 2026-11-08
Market position
On blended price ($1.3575 per 1M tokens at 30% input, 70% output) it is cheaper than 5% of models in the Budget price tier: 152nd cheapest of 160. Across every price tier it is cheaper than 50% of priced text models in the catalogue: 152nd cheapest of 303. Its Arena ELO of 1436 ranks 59th of the 160 models that carry one, tied with one other, above 63% of them. With an Arena score of 1436, Qwen3.8 27B clears OptimNow's Standard working quality threshold: Standard (Arena 1420+), used for meeting summary, invoice processing and call summary. Each threshold is a distance below the best ranked model, which scores 1530 on Arena scores as of 8 Nov 2026.
Licence, size and capabilities
Qwen3.8 27B is open source: its weights are published under Apache 2.0, an OSI-approved licence with no field-of-use limit, so it can be self-hosted as well as bought by the token. Its published size is 27B parameters. Listed capabilities: Text, Vision, Reasoning, Agents. Filling its 1M context window once costs $0.15 in input tokens at list price.
Pricing by host
A host is a company that runs the model and sells it by the token: the model maker, a cloud platform like Amazon Bedrock, Azure or Vertex, or an independent host. One model, several hosts, and often several prices. This model is sold by 23 different hosts. The price we quote elsewhere on this page is marked. We quote one host's rate so that models stay comparable; it is not a recommendation to buy there.
Cheapest host: PrimeIntellect at $0.054 input / $0.381 output per 1M tokens, 79% below the price we quote on the blended price (30% input, 70% output). It serves a quantized fp8 build, which is not the same product as the full-precision model. A support ticket workload at 100K requests a month costs $27.15 there against $116.25 at the price we quote, a difference of $89.10 a month. The dearest, Venice, charges 8.4x the cheapest.
| Host | Input $/1M | Output $/1M | Precision |
|---|---|---|---|
| PrimeIntellect | $0.054 | $0.381 | fp8 |
| StreamLake | $0.175 | $1.05 | not declared |
| Chutes | $0.039 | $1.25 | fp8 |
| Mancer 2 | $0.15 | $1.25 | fp8 |
| Near AI | $0.04 | $1.35 | fp8 |
| Darkbloom | $0.035 | $1.50 | fp4 |
| Tenstorrent | $0.15 | $1.60 | fp8 |
| Cerebras | $0.99 | $1.49 | fp16 |
| DeepInfra (price we quote) | $0.15 | $1.875 | bf16 |
| Ionstream | $0.04 | $1.95 | fp8 |
| AkashML | $0.225 | $1.98 | fp8 |
| Wafer | $0.06 | $2.20 | fp8 |
| Parasail | $0.24 | $2.20 | fp8 |
| Modal | $0.04 | $2.30 | not declared |
| DekaLLM | $0.04 | $2.50 | not declared |
| Reka | $0.15 | $2.50 | fp8 |
| Alibaba (model maker) | $0.425 | $2.55 | not declared |
| CoreWeave | $0.40 | $3.00 | fp8 |
| Novita | $0.42 | $3.00 | not declared |
| Nebius | $0.45 | $3.00 | fp4 |
| GMICloud | $0.45 | $3.20 | bf16 |
| Cloudflare | $0.45 | $3.20 | not declared |
| Venice | $0.45 | $3.20 | fp8 |
List prices as published on 2026-11-12, via OpenRouter. Negotiated rates, committed-use discounts and provisioned capacity are not shown. These hosts do not all serve the model at the same numeric precision, so the cheapest is not a like-for-like substitute for the dearest. These listings are promotional rates, below the host's standard rate: StreamLake's, 65% off; and DeepInfra's, 25% off.
Monthly cost at 100K requests, by business use case
From the after-discounts figure (prompt caching on the cached input share, batch API for async workloads, only where Alibaba publishes those rates), which assumes you implement both, to the list price. One figure means no discount is published.
| Use case | Tokens (in/out) | Monthly (after discounts – list) |
|---|---|---|
| Support Ticket | 1,500 / 500 | $106 – $116 |
| Knowledge Q&A | 2,000 / 800 | $164 – $180 |
| Meeting Summary | 10,000 / 1,200 | $364 – $375 |
| Marketing Content | 2,500 / 1,800 | $369 – $375 |
| Coding Task | 3,000 / 2,000 | $403 – $420 |
| Invoice Processing | 1,500 / 600 | $130 – $135 |
| Call Summary | 2,000 / 700 | $159 – $161 |
| Agent Workflow | 6,000 / 3,000 | $605 – $653 |
Price history
Qwen3.8 27B has been in our daily price archive since tracking began on 2026-08-15, when it listed at $0.45 input / $3.20 output per 1M tokens. The price we quote has changed 17 times since then, 14 of them a change of quoted host rather than a repricing. The latest change, on 2026-11-01, was +53.1% on the blended price (30% input, 70% output), to $0.15 input / $1.875 output (quoted host changed, not a repricing). Net of all changes, the blended price is -42.8% against 2026-08-15.
| Date | Old price (in / out) | New price (in / out) | Blended change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-11-01 | $0.039 / $1.25 | $0.15 / $1.875 | +53.1% (quoted host changed, not a repricing) |
| 2026-10-28 | $0.20 / $2.50 | $0.039 / $1.25 | -51.0% (quoted host changed, not a repricing) |
| 2026-10-24 | $0.04 / $1.35 | $0.20 / $2.50 | +89.1% (quoted host changed, not a repricing) |
| 2026-10-20 | $0.24 / $2.20 | $0.04 / $1.35 | -40.6% (quoted host changed, not a repricing) |
| 2026-10-15 | $0.04 / $2.30 | $0.24 / $2.20 | -0.6% (quoted host changed, not a repricing) |
12 earlier changes are not listed.
Alternatives to Qwen3.8 27B
3 of the 4 comparable models below cost less than Qwen3.8 27B: Gemma 4 26B A4B undercuts it by 93%, for 2 Arena points less.
- Next cheaper model in the Budget price tier: Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 (Alibaba) at $1.35 blended, 1% less.
- Next more expensive: Aion-2.0 (aion-labs) at $1.36 blended, under 1% more.
The nearest models in the Budget price tier on Arena ELO, each with its blended price and score difference against Qwen3.8 27B.
- Qwen3.6 Plus (Alibaba): $0.325 in / $1.95 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1436 (8% more expensive, same Arena ELO)
- Gemma 4 26B A4B (Google): $0.08 in / $0.10 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1434 (93% cheaper, 2 ELO points lower)
- Hy3 (Tencent): $0.132 in / $0.528 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1439 (70% cheaper, 3 ELO points higher)
- DeepSeek V4 Flash 0423 (DeepSeek): $0.09 in / $0.18 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1432 (89% cheaper, 4 ELO points lower)
- Cheapest within 15 Arena points: Gemma 4 26B A4B (Google), 93% cheaper, 2 ELO points lower, out of 42 models in that band.
- Highest Arena ELO within 20% of this price: MiMo-V2.5-Pro (Xiaomi), 3% more expensive, 28 ELO points higher, out of 14 models in that price band.
Other models from Alibaba
The 8 nearest to Qwen3.8 27B in price, of 39 other Alibaba models in the catalogue. Prices per 1M tokens, input then output.
- Qwen2.5 VL 72B Instruct: $0.80 / $1.00
- Qwen3.7 Plus: $0.32 / $1.28
- Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-02-15: $0.26 / $1.56
- Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20: $0.30 / $1.80
- Qwen3 VL 235B A22B Instruct: $0.21 / $1.90
- Qwen3.6 Plus: $0.325 / $1.95
- Qwen3.5-122B-A10B: $0.26 / $2.08
- Qwen3.5-27B: $0.26 / $2.60
All 40 Alibaba models and prices
Common questions about Qwen3.8 27B pricing
- How much does Qwen3.8 27B cost?
- Qwen3.8 27B costs $0.15 per 1M input tokens and $1.875 per 1M output tokens at DeepInfra, the host whose rate we quote. The model maker, Alibaba, lists it at $0.425 per 1M input tokens and $2.55 per 1M output tokens. Prices as listed on 2026-11-12.
- Which host is cheapest for Qwen3.8 27B?
- Cheapest host: PrimeIntellect at $0.054 input / $0.381 output per 1M tokens, 79% below the price we quote on the blended price (30% input, 70% output). It serves a quantized fp8 build, which is not the same product as the full-precision model. A support ticket workload at 100K requests a month costs $27.15 there against $116.25 at the price we quote, a difference of $89.10 a month. The dearest, Venice, charges 8.4x the cheapest. Host rates as listed on 2026-11-12.
- Does Qwen3.8 27B offer batch or cached pricing?
- Yes, for prompt caching only. Cache reads cost $0.0375 per 1M tokens, as listed on 2026-11-12. No batch pricing is published.
- What would Qwen3.8 27B cost per month?
- With the Support Ticket profile (1,500 input and 500 output tokens per request), 100,000 requests a month cost about $116 on Qwen3.8 27B at the list price quoted on 2026-11-12.
- Can Qwen3.8 27B be self-hosted?
- Yes. Qwen3.8 27B is open source: its weights are published under Apache 2.0, an OSI-approved licence with no field-of-use limit, so it can be self-hosted as well as bought by the token.
- Has the price of Qwen3.8 27B changed?
- Qwen3.8 27B has been in our daily price archive since tracking began on 2026-08-15, when it listed at $0.45 input / $3.20 output per 1M tokens. The price we quote has changed 17 times since then, 14 of them a change of quoted host rather than a repricing. The latest change, on 2026-11-01, was +53.1% on the blended price (30% input, 70% output), to $0.15 input / $1.875 output (quoted host changed, not a repricing). Net of all changes, the blended price is -42.8% against 2026-08-15.
Its weights are published, which changes what you may run yourself: the cost gap between open weights and proprietary APIs.
These are list prices. Your real cost also depends on caching and batching, negotiated discounts, marketplace agreements, and the contracts you already have. OptimNow audits exactly that.
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