API cost decision in 10 seconds

🔥GPT-5.6 Sol vs NewQwen3.8 2.4T A95B

Pick Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B for lower cost; pick GPT-5.6 Sol only if the larger context window matters more.

Page updated: 2026-08-21T22:07:53Z Data confirmed: 2026-08-23T13:07:49Z Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output

Budget verdict

Pick Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B for lower cost; pick GPT-5.6 Sol only if the larger context window matters more.

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B is estimated at $5 vs $7 for GPT-5.6 Sol, saving $2 (28.6% lower).

Cost-first pickQwen3.8 2.4T A95B

Context-first pickGPT-5.6 Sol

Sample savings$228.6%

10x traffic gap$20

GPT-5.6 Sol has more context, but Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B saves $2 on the standard workload. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $20. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.

Cost sensitivity

Workload Sensitivity

Same prices, different token mixes.

Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.

Workload shape	Token mix	Better pick	GPT-5.6 Sol	Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B
Input-heavy / RAG	5M input + 500K output	Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B	$15	$13
Balanced workload	1M input + 1M output	Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B	$12	$8
Output-heavy chatbot	1M input + 5M output	Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B	$52	$32

Cheaper input Tie $2 vs $2 / 1M

Both models report the same input price at $2 per 1M tokens.

Cheaper output Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B $10 vs $6 / 1M

Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B is $4 cheaper per 1M output tokens (40% lower; 1.67x difference).

Larger context GPT-5.6 Sol 1.05M vs 1.05M

GPT-5.6 Sol has 1.42K more context (1x larger).

Sample workload Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B $7 vs $5

Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B is $2 cheaper on the standard workload (28.6% lower).

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.

Monthly input tokens Monthly output tokens

GPT-5.6 Sol Calculating… Estimated API cost

Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B Calculating… Estimated API cost

Cheaper for this workload Calculating… Difference: calculating…

This estimate uses normalized public API pricing per 1M tokens. It is a planning aid, not a billing quote. Verify provider pricing, limits, and terms before production use.

Quick Decision

Verdict

both models tie on input price; Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B has the lower output price; GPT-5.6 Sol offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B is cheaper for the standard workload.

For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $7 for GPT-5.6 Sol and $5 for Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B.

Best Fit

Choose GPT-5.6 Sol when you care most about larger context window.

Choose Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B when you care most about lower output-token price.

Decision Notes

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B is estimated at $5 vs $7 for GPT-5.6 Sol, saving $2 (28.6% lower).
Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B is $2 cheaper on the standard workload (28.6% lower).
Both models report the same input price at $2 per 1M tokens.
Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B is $4 cheaper per 1M output tokens (40% lower; 1.67x difference).
GPT-5.6 Sol has 1.42K more context (1x larger).

Head-to-Head Specs

Feature	🔥GPT-5.6 Sol (OpenAI)	NewQwen3.8 2.4T A95B (Qwen)
Input Price prompt tokens per 1M	$2	$2
Completion Price per 1M tokens	$10	$6
Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output	$7	$5
Context Window	1.05M	1.05M
Release Date	2026-07-09	2026-08-12
Popularity	#15

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use case	Better pick	Why
Budget-constrained production	Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B	On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B is estimated at $5 vs $7 for GPT-5.6 Sol, saving $2 (28.6% lower).
High-volume input processing	Tie	Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbots	Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B	Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document work	GPT-5.6 Sol	A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files.

Related Alternatives

Same-provider lower-cost swaps

gpt-oss-120b (free) can replace GPT-5.6 Sol when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
gpt-oss-20b (free) can replace GPT-5.6 Sol when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
gpt-oss-20b can replace GPT-5.6 Sol when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.1.
gpt-oss-120b can replace GPT-5.6 Sol when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.12.

Larger context near this budget

Grok 4.20 Multi-Agent offers 2M context with $2.5 sample workload cost.
Grok 4.20 offers 2M context with $2.5 sample workload cost.
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 offers 1.31M context with $0.17 sample workload cost.
DeepSeek V4 Flash Latest offers 1.31M context with $0.11 sample workload cost.

Popular competitors

DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 · DeepSeek · #1
MiMo-V2.5 · Xiaomi · #2
Hy3 · Tencent · #3
Ox Alpha · stealth · #4

Cheaper alternatives

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Larger context alternatives

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Provider catalogs

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OpenAI catalog

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Qwen catalog

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GPT-5.6 Sol

GPT-5.6 Sol is the flagship model in OpenAI's GPT-5.6 series. It is suited for complex reasoning, coding, and agentic workflows, and is particularly strong at command-line and multi-step coding tasks...

Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B

Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B is an open-weight sparse mixture-of-experts model from Qwen and the open-weight variant of [Qwen3.8 Max](/qwen/qwen3.8-max), with 95 billion active parameters out of 2.4 trillion total. It is...