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Grok-1.5 vs Qwen3.8-27B

Qwen3.8-27B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

xAI · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Grok-1.5 outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3.8-27B is better at 1 benchmark (GPQA). Qwen3.8-27B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose Grok-1.5

  • you are already invested in the xAI ecosystem

Choose Qwen3.8-27B

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 1 of 1 shared benchmarks
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Aug 2026
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Grok-1.5
xAI
Qwen3.8-27B
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Benchmark wins
0 of 1
1 of 1
Input price
— / M
— / M
Output price
— / M
— / M
Context window
—
—
Released
Mar 2024
Aug 2026
License
Proprietary
Apache 2.0

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

1 benchmarks

Grok-1.5 outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3.8-27B is better at 1 benchmark (GPQA).

Qwen3.8-27B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Mon Aug 24 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Playground indexes and blind preference scores

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Qwen3.8-27B supports multimodal inputs, whereas Grok-1.5 does not.

Qwen3.8-27B can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Grok-1.5

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Qwen3.8-27B

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Grok-1.5 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Qwen3.8-27B uses Apache 2.0.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

Grok-1.5

Proprietary

Closed source

Qwen3.8-27B

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Grok-1.5 was released on 2024-03-28, while Qwen3.8-27B was released on 2026-08-14.

Qwen3.8-27B is 29 months newer than Grok-1.5.

Grok-1.5

Mar 28, 2024

2.4 years ago

Qwen3.8-27B

Aug 14, 2026

1 weeks ago

2.4yr newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Grok-1.5 and Qwen3.8-27B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Grok-1.5
✓ Preferred
Qwen3.8-27B
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Grok-1.5 vs Qwen3.8-27B.

Which is better, Grok-1.5 or Qwen3.8-27B?

Qwen3.8-27B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Grok-1.5 is made by xAI and Qwen3.8-27B is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does Grok-1.5 compare to Qwen3.8-27B in benchmarks?

Grok-1.5 scores GSM8k: 90.0%, DocVQA: 85.6%, MMLU: 81.3%, HumanEval: 74.1%, MMMU: 53.6%. Qwen3.8-27B scores MathVision: 94.6%, OmniDocBench 1.5: 91.1%, LiveCodeBench v6: 90.3%, CharXiv-R: 90.2%, GPQA: 89.2%.

What are the main differences between Grok-1.5 and Qwen3.8-27B?

Key differences include multimodal support (no vs yes), licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Grok-1.5 and Qwen3.8-27B?

Grok-1.5 is developed by xAI and Qwen3.8-27B is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.

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