Is GPT-6 Astra better than Qwen3.8 Max (0902)?

On accuracy they are statistically tied: GPT-6 Astra scored 76.2% and Qwen3.8 Max (0902) 75.0% on the same 80 questions from open datasets. Similar accuracy; Qwen3.8 Max (0902) costs less per question.

Which is cheaper, GPT-6 Astra or Qwen3.8 Max (0902)?

Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is cheaper: $0.011 per question as billed, against $0.013. List prices: GPT-6 Astra $10 in / $50 out, Qwen3.8 Max (0902) $2 in / $6 out per million tokens.

Which is faster, GPT-6 Astra or Qwen3.8 Max (0902)?

Their output speed is similar: 49 and 46 tokens per second.

Which has the larger context window, GPT-6 Astra or Qwen3.8 Max (0902)?

Both accept about the same amount of context: 1.1M and 1M tokens.

Head to head · tested 27 Oct 2026

GPT-6 Astra vs Qwen3.8 Max (0902): accuracy, speed and price

Similar accuracy; Qwen3.8 Max (0902) costs less per question.

OpenAIGPT-6 Astra76.2% score · #12$0.013 per question49 tok/s

QwenQwen3.8 Max (0902)75.0% score · #15$0.011 per question46 tok/s

Verdict

Built from the measurements below

Accuracy is too close to call: GPT-6 Astra scored 76.2% and Qwen3.8 Max (0902) 75.0% on the same 80 questions, a gap within what chance alone could produce.
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is 1.2× cheaper per question as billed ($0.011 vs $0.013), reasoning tokens included.
Output speed is similar (49 vs 46 tokens per second).
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) starts answering sooner: 1.2 s to the first token, against 1.3 s for GPT-6 Astra.

Which should you choose?

Choose GPT-6 Astra for shorter outputs (about 205 tokens per question against 1,722) and more hosts to choose from on OpenRouter (3 against 1). Choose Qwen3.8 Max (0902) for the lower cost per correct answer ($0.015 against $0.017) and a quicker first token.

Accuracy gap +1.2 points (z = 0.18). A winner is called only when z is at least 1.96, the usual 95% threshold. Speed, latency and price need a 10% margin.

Head to head

Same questions, same prompt, same API

Measure	GPT-6 Astra	Qwen3.8 Max (0902)	Edge
Verification scoreHigher is better	76.2%	75.0%	Too close to call
Cost per questionLower is better	$0.013	$0.011	Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Output speedHigher is better	49	46	Similar
Time to first tokenLower is better	1.3 s	1.2 s	Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
End-to-end response timeLower is better	8.9 s	12.2 s	GPT-6 Astra
Tokens per questionLower is better	205	1,722	GPT-6 Astra
Context windowHigher is better	1.1M	1M	Similar

Side by side

Bars are scaled to the larger of the two values. The winner on each measure is marked in bold.

Every measure

GPT-6 Astra first, Qwen3.8 Max (0902) second

Verification scorehigher is better

GPT-6 Astra76.2%

Qwen3.8 Max (0902)75.0%

Cost per questionlower is better

GPT-6 Astra$0.013

Qwen3.8 Max (0902)$0.011

Output speedhigher is better

GPT-6 Astra49

Qwen3.8 Max (0902)46

Time to first tokenlower is better

GPT-6 Astra1.3 s

Qwen3.8 Max (0902)1.2 s

End-to-end response timelower is better

GPT-6 Astra8.9 s

Qwen3.8 Max (0902)12.2 s

Tokens per questionlower is better

GPT-6 Astra205

Qwen3.8 Max (0902)1,722

Context windowhigher is better

GPT-6 Astra1.1M

Qwen3.8 Max (0902)1M

Score vs. cost per question

Both models in color, every other model in grey

Results by subject and dataset

Questions answered correctly. Small samples: a gap of one or two questions is noise.

Subject	Questions	GPT-6 Astra	Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Science	30	26/30	24/30
Engineering	15	10/15	9/15
Medicine	11	6/11	6/11
Economics	9	8/9	8/9
Law	6	3/6	4/6
Humanities & social science	9	8/9	9/9
SuperGPQA dataset	50	35/50	32/50
MMLU-Pro dataset	30	26/30	28/30

Specifications and pricing

From OpenRouter's catalogue, plus the leaderboard's test dates

Specification	GPT-6 Astra	Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Creator	OpenAI	Qwen
Released	4 Sept 2026	3 Sept 2026
Weights	—	—
Reasoning	Yes	Yes
Input	file, image, text	text, image, video
Output	text	text
Context window	1.1M tokens	1M tokens
Knowledge cutoff	—	—
List price in / out per 1M	$10 / $50	$2 / $6
Blended price per 1M (3:1)	$20.00	$3.00
Cheapest host	OpenAI · $5 / $25	Alibaba · $2 / $6
Hosts on OpenRouter	3	1
Last tested	27 Oct 2026	25 Oct 2026

Compare any two models →

GPT-6 Astra vs Qwen3.8 Max (0902): frequently asked questions

Is GPT-6 Astra better than Qwen3.8 Max (0902)?: On accuracy they are statistically tied: GPT-6 Astra scored 76.2% and Qwen3.8 Max (0902) 75.0% on the same 80 questions from open datasets. Similar accuracy; Qwen3.8 Max (0902) costs less per question.
Which is cheaper, GPT-6 Astra or Qwen3.8 Max (0902)?: Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is cheaper: $0.011 per question as billed, against $0.013. List prices: GPT-6 Astra $10 in / $50 out, Qwen3.8 Max (0902) $2 in / $6 out per million tokens.
Which is faster, GPT-6 Astra or Qwen3.8 Max (0902)?: Their output speed is similar: 49 and 46 tokens per second.
Which has the larger context window, GPT-6 Astra or Qwen3.8 Max (0902)?: Both accept about the same amount of context: 1.1M and 1M tokens.