Qwen3.8 27B vs Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
Qwen3.8 27B leads llmrun Score 122.1 to 103.9; only Qwen3.8 27B fits 24 GB (Q4_K_M); Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct needs 146.4 GB even at its smallest quant.
Model A · Alibaba
Qwen3.8 27B27.8B · 256K context · Apache 2.0 · Aug 2026
Model B · Alibaba
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct480.2B · 35.5B active · 256K context · Apache 2.0 · Jul 2025
Choose Qwen3.8 27B if you want…
Higher llmrun Score
122.1 vs 103.9
Stronger at coding
119.7 vs 100.6
Stronger at agents
122.8 vs 104.9
Fits a 12 GB GPU
IQ3_XXS · 12 GB; Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct needs 146.4 GB at its smallest quant
Fits a Mac 32 GB
Q4_K_M · 17.9 GB; Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct needs 146.4 GB at its smallest quant
Lighter on memory
17.4 vs 288.7 GB at Q4_K_M
Choose Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct if you want…
Also does chat, code
Qwen3.8 27B doesn't list it
On your hardware
Each model at its default quant (Q4_K_M), a smaller one when it must. Estimates, ±20%.
8 GB
RTX 4060 · 8 GB tier
Qwen3.8 27B
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 8.8 GB
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 146.4 GB
12 GB
RTX 3060 12GB · 12 GB tier
Qwen3.8 27B
IQ3_XXS · ~20 tok/s
12 GB · up to 16Kfits
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 146.4 GB
16 GB
RTX 5060 Ti 16GB · 16 GB tier
Qwen3.8 27B
Q3_K_L · ~19 tok/s
15.4 GB · up to 16Kfits
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 146.4 GB
24 GBreference
RTX 4090 · 24 GB tier
Qwen3.8 27B
Q4_K_M · ~38 tok/s
17.9 GB · up to 64Kfits
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 146.4 GB
32 GB
RTX 5090 · 32 GB tier
Qwen3.8 27B
Q4_K_M · ~67 tok/s
17.9 GB · up to 256Kfits
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 146.4 GB
48 GB
RTX A6000 · 48 GB tier
Qwen3.8 27B
Q4_K_M · ~29 tok/s
17.9 GB · up to 256Kfits
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 146.4 GB
Mac 32 GB
Mac Mini M4 · Macs
Qwen3.8 27B
Q4_K_M · ~5 tok/s
17.9 GB · up to 128Kfits
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 146.4 GB
Mac 64 GB
Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs
Qwen3.8 27B
Q4_K_M · ~22 tok/s
17.9 GB · up to 256Kfits
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 146.4 GB
Mac 128 GB
Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs
Qwen3.8 27B
Q4_K_M · ~22 tok/s
17.9 GB · up to 256Kfits
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 146.4 GB
Reference GPU: RTX 4090. Tinted cell = the better pick on that machine (fits, more headroom, or at least 10% faster).
Overall
Qwen3.8 27B
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
Coding
Qwen3.8 27B
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
Agents
Qwen3.8 27B
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
Math
Qwen3.8 27B
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
no data
Science
Qwen3.8 27B
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
no data
Reasoning
Qwen3.8 27B
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
no data
Qwen3.8 27B · #11 of 100 open models · #1 of 35 that fit 24 GB
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct · #42 of 100 open models · #39 of 96 that fit ≤512 GB
27 more boards (other shared and single-model boards)
Qwen3.8 27B
1437.8#22/187 open
ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
1387.6#58/187 open
ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026
Qwen3.8 27B
1593.2#10/52 open
ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
1274.7#45/52 open
ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026
Only Qwen3.8 27B (19)
- LiveBench Coding75.7
- LiveBench Reasoning80.0
- LiveBench Math86.2
- ARC-AGI-242.4%
- SciCode46.6%
- ARC-AGI87.5%
- APEX-Agents47.5%
- CritPt5.4%
- DTBench88.0%
- LiveBench 2026 Reasoning80.0
- LMCA41.4%
- LiveBench 2026 Browser32.0
- LiveBench 2026 Data Analysis76.6
- LiveBench 2026 Coding86.8
- LiveBench 2026 Long-Horizon27.9
- Surface Evolver Bench45.0%
- LiveBench 2026 Design75.9
- ProofBench16.0%
- LiveBench 2026 Research59.4
Only Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct (6)
- SWE-bench Verified69.6%
- Terminal-Bench27.2%
- SWE-bench Bash Only55.4%
- WeirdML41.2%
- ALE-Bench461.4
- GSO-Bench4.9%
VRAM by quantization
Memory to load the model and 2K context; below it, the total at 32K and 128K context. Lighter side in bold.
Q2_K
Qwen3.8 27B
12.6 GB10.8 GB file
32K 13.9 GB · 128K 19.3 GB
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
205 GB174.7 GB file
32K 209 GB · 128K 221 GB
Q3_K_S
Qwen3.8 27B
12.9 GB12.7 GB file
32K 14.2 GB · 128K 19.6 GB
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
211 GB206.9 GB file
32K 215 GB · 128K 227 GB
Q3_K_M
Qwen3.8 27B
14.3 GB13.4 GB file
32K 15.6 GB · 128K 21.0 GB
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
235 GB229.2 GB file
32K 239 GB · 128K 251 GB
Q4_0
Qwen3.8 27B
14.6 GB~13.9 GB file
32K 16.0 GB · 128K 21.4 GB
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
241 GB271.6 GB file
32K 245 GB · 128K 257 GB
Q4_K_M
Qwen3.8 27B
17.4 GB16.5 GB file
32K 18.8 GB · 128K 24.1 GB
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
289 GB290.1 GB file
32K 293 GB · 128K 305 GB
Q5_K_M
Qwen3.8 27B
20.5 GB19.8 GB file
32K 21.9 GB · 128K 27.3 GB
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
343 GB340.5 GB file
32K 347 GB · 128K 359 GB
Q6_K
Qwen3.8 27B
23.7 GB22.0 GB file
32K 25.0 GB · 128K 30.4 GB
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
397 GB394.1 GB file
32K 401 GB · 128K 413 GB
Q8_0
Qwen3.8 27B
28.5 GB29.0 GB file
32K 29.9 GB · 128K 35.2 GB
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
481 GB510.4 GB file
32K 485 GB · 128K 497 GB
17 more quants
IQ2_XXS
Qwen3.8 27B
8.4 GB7.3 GB file
32K 9.7 GB · 128K 15.1 GB
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
not listed
IQ2_XS
Qwen3.8 27B
9.1 GB9.1 GB file
32K 10.4 GB · 128K 15.8 GB
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
145 GB132.9 GB file
32K 149 GB · 128K 161 GB
IQ2_S
Qwen3.8 27B
9.4 GB8.4 GB file
32K 10.8 GB · 128K 16.1 GB
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
151 GB133.6 GB file
32K 155 GB · 128K 167 GB
IQ2_M
Qwen3.8 27B
10.1 GB10.5 GB file
32K 11.5 GB · 128K 16.8 GB
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
not listed
IQ3_XXS
Qwen3.8 27B
11.5 GB10.9 GB file
32K 12.9 GB · 128K 18.2 GB
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
187 GB201.5 GB file
32K 191 GB · 128K 203 GB
IQ3_XS
Qwen3.8 27B
12.2 GB10.4 GB file
32K 13.6 GB · 128K 18.9 GB
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
199 GB197.1 GB file
32K 203 GB · 128K 215 GB
IQ3_S
Qwen3.8 27B
12.6 GB12.0 GB file
32K 13.9 GB · 128K 19.3 GB
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
not listed
IQ3_M
Qwen3.8 27B
13.3 GB14.9 GB file
32K 14.6 GB · 128K 20.0 GB
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
217 GB218.4 GB file
32K 221 GB · 128K 233 GB
Q3_K_L
Qwen3.8 27B
15.0 GB14.1 GB file
32K 16.3 GB · 128K 21.7 GB
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
247 GB226.7 GB file
32K 251 GB · 128K 263 GB
IQ4_XS
Qwen3.8 27B
15.7 GB14.3 GB file
32K 17.0 GB · 128K 22.4 GB
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
259 GB260.5 GB file
32K 263 GB · 128K 275 GB
IQ4_NL
Qwen3.8 27B
16.4 GB17.4 GB file
32K 17.7 GB · 128K 23.1 GB
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
271 GB270.6 GB file
32K 275 GB · 128K 287 GB
Q4_1
Qwen3.8 27B
16.4 GB17.5 GB file
32K 17.7 GB · 128K 23.1 GB
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
271 GB300.5 GB file
32K 275 GB · 128K 287 GB
Q4_K_S
Qwen3.8 27B
16.4 GB15.4 GB file
32K 17.7 GB · 128K 23.1 GB
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
271 GB272.8 GB file
32K 275 GB · 128K 287 GB
Q4_K_L
Qwen3.8 27B
17.8 GB18.8 GB file
32K 19.1 GB · 128K 24.5 GB
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
not listed
Q5_K_S
Qwen3.8 27B
19.9 GB18.7 GB file
32K 21.2 GB · 128K 26.6 GB
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
331 GB330.4 GB file
32K 335 GB · 128K 347 GB
Q5_K_L
Qwen3.8 27B
20.9 GB21.5 GB file
32K 22.2 GB · 128K 27.6 GB
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
not listed
BF16
Qwen3.8 27B
56.3 GB54.7 GB file
32K 57.7 GB · 128K 63.0 GB
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
961 GB960.4 GB file
32K 965 GB · 128K 977 GB
Qwen3.8 27B
Ollama · Q4_K_M
ollama run hf.co/unsloth/Qwen3.8-27B-GGUF:Q4_K_MQwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
Ollama · Q4_K_M
ollama run hf.co/unsloth/Qwen3-Coder-480B-A35B-Instruct-GGUF:Q4_K_M| Spec | Qwen3.8 27B | Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Publisher | Alibaba | Alibaba |
| Parameters | 27.8B | 480.2B |
| Active parameters | — | 35B per token |
| Architecture | Qwen3_5ForConditionalGeneration | Qwen3MoeForCausalLM |
| Context | 256K tokens | 256K tokens |
| Modalities | Vision, Function-calling | Chat, Code, Function-calling |
| License | Apache 2.0 | Apache 2.0 |
| Released | Aug 2026 | Jul 2025 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better, Qwen3.8 27B or Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct?
Qwen3.8 27B leads llmrun Score 122.1 to 103.9; only Qwen3.8 27B fits 24 GB (Q4_K_M); Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct needs 146.4 GB even at its smallest quant. Choose Qwen3.8 27B for higher llmrun Score and stronger at coding; choose Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct for also does chat, code.
Which needs less VRAM, Qwen3.8 27B or Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct?
At Q4_K_M, Qwen3.8 27B requires 17.4 GB while Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct needs 288.7 GB, making Qwen3.8 27B the easier model to run on your local setup.
Can I run Qwen3.8 27B or Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct on a 16 GB GPU?
Qwen3.8 27B fits at Q3_K_L; Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct does not fit (smallest quant needs 146.4 GB).
Which has a longer context window, Qwen3.8 27B or Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct?
Qwen3.8 27B supports 262,144 tokens and Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct supports 262,144 tokens.