Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) vs Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) by Kimi or Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning) by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) scores 14.3 points higher (27.0 vs 12.7) but costs 6.0× as much to run the benchmark ($1409 vs $234; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) when you need intelligence above 12.7, and Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning) when 12.7 is enough.
| Metric | Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) | Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 27.0 | 12.7 | −53.0% Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 … is 53.0% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,408.86 | $233.56 | −83.4% Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 … is 83.4% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 52.97s | 22.73s | −57.1% Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 … is 57.1% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.95 / $4.00 | $0.23 / $2.30 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Video | Text |
Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning) vs Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning): 53.0% less intelligence, 83.4% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 57.1% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning)Qwen3 235B A22B 2507 (Reasoning)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/kimi-k2-6/qwen3-235b-a22b-instruct-2507-reasoning · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/kimi-k2-6/qwen3-235b-a22b-instruct-2507-reasoning?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill