Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) vs Kimi K3 (Max)
Which is better for the money: Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) by Google or Kimi K3 (Max) by Kimi? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Kimi K3 (Max) scores 3.8 points higher (43.6 vs 39.8) but costs 3.3× as much to run the benchmark ($3658 vs $1100; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Kimi K3 (Max) when you need intelligence above 39.8, and Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) when 39.8 is enough.
| Metric | Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) | Kimi K3 (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 39.8 | 43.6 | +9.5% Kimi K3 (Max) is 9.5% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,100.06 | $3,658.07 | +232.5% Kimi K3 (Max) is 3.3× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | Not reported | 63.08s | — not comparable |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.75 / $3.75 | $3.00 / $15.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text, Image |
Kimi K3 (Max) vs Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium): 9.5% more intelligence, 232.5% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and end-to-end time not fully reported.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- Kimi K3 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 55.10 for $3117.
Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium)Kimi K3 (Max)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/gemini-3-8-flash-medium/kimi-k3 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gemini-3-8-flash-medium/kimi-k3?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill