LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 vs Qwen3.8-27B
Qwen3.8-27B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Meituan · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3.8-27B is better at 2 benchmarks (GPQA, Humanity's Last Exam). Qwen3.8-27B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601
- you want predictable pricing at $0.30/M input and $1.20/M output
Choose Qwen3.8-27B
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 2 of 2 shared benchmarks
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Aug 2026
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3.8-27B is better at 2 benchmarks (GPQA, Humanity's Last Exam).
Qwen3.8-27B significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Playground indexes and blind preference scores
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 has 532.2B more parameters than Qwen3.8-27B, making it 1915.7% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Only LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 specifies input context (128,000 tokens). Only LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 specifies output context (128,000 tokens).
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Qwen3.8-27B supports multimodal inputs, whereas LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 does not.
Qwen3.8-27B can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601
Qwen3.8-27B
License
Usage and distribution terms
LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 is licensed under MIT, while Qwen3.8-27B uses Apache 2.0.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
MIT
Open weights
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 was released on 2026-01-14, while Qwen3.8-27B was released on 2026-08-14.
Qwen3.8-27B is 7 months newer than LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601.
Jan 14, 2026
7 months ago
Aug 14, 2026
1 weeks ago
7mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 and Qwen3.8-27B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about LongCat-Flash-Thinking-2601 vs Qwen3.8-27B.