Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) vs Qwen3.7 Max
Which is better for the money: Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) by Kimi or Qwen3.7 Max by Alibaba? 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
Qwen3.7 Max scores 2.5 points higher (29.5 vs 27.0) but costs 1.5× as much to run the benchmark ($2277 vs $1528; flagship vs premium cost classes). Pick Qwen3.7 Max when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning).
| Metric | Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) | Qwen3.7 Max | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 27.0 | 29.5 | +9.3% Qwen3.7 Max is 9.3% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,528.20 | $2,277.12 | +49.0% Qwen3.7 Max is 49.0% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 65.20s | 16.61s | −74.5% Qwen3.7 Max is 74.5% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.95 / $4.00 | $2.50 / $7.50 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Video | Text |
Qwen3.7 Max vs Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning): 9.3% more intelligence, 49.0% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 74.5% 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.
- Qwen3.7 Max is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) scores 53.60 for $2172.
Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning)Qwen3.7 MaxToday'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/qwen3-7-max · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/kimi-k2-6/qwen3-7-max?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill