The AI arena is free today

Open Superagent

Grok-2 mini vs Qwen3.8-27B

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

xAI · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Grok-2 mini 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-2 mini

  • 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-2 mini
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
Aug 2024
Aug 2026
License
Proprietary
Apache 2.0

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

1 benchmarks

Grok-2 mini 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

Both Grok-2 mini and Qwen3.8-27B support multimodal inputs.

They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.

Grok-2 mini

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Qwen3.8-27B

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Grok-2 mini 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-2 mini

Proprietary

Closed source

Qwen3.8-27B

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Grok-2 mini was released on 2024-08-13, while Qwen3.8-27B was released on 2026-08-14.

Qwen3.8-27B is 24 months newer than Grok-2 mini.

Grok-2 mini

Aug 13, 2024

2.0 years ago

Qwen3.8-27B

Aug 14, 2026

1 weeks ago

2.0yr 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-2 mini and Qwen3.8-27B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Grok-2 mini
✓ Preferred
Qwen3.8-27B
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Grok-2 mini vs Qwen3.8-27B.

Which is better, Grok-2 mini or Qwen3.8-27B?

Qwen3.8-27B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Grok-2 mini 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-2 mini compare to Qwen3.8-27B in benchmarks?

Grok-2 mini scores DocVQA: 93.2%, MMLU: 86.2%, HumanEval: 85.7%, MATH: 73.0%, MMLU-Pro: 72.0%. 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-2 mini and Qwen3.8-27B?

Key differences include licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Grok-2 mini and Qwen3.8-27B?

Grok-2 mini is developed by xAI and Qwen3.8-27B is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.

Related comparisons