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

• 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). We call a winner only when z is at least 1.96, the usual 95% threshold. Speed, latency and price need a 10% margin.