Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) vs Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Which is better for the money: Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) by Kimi or Qwen3.8 Max (0902) by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) scores 18.4 points higher (45.4 vs 27.0) but costs 3.2× as much to run the benchmark ($4935 vs $1528; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.8 Max (0902) when you need intelligence above 27.0, and Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) when 27.0 is enough.
| Metric | Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 27.0 | 45.4 | +68.1% Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is 68.1% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,528.20 | $4,934.79 | +222.9% Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is 3.2× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 54.37s | 64.02s | +17.7% Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is 17.7% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.95 / $4.00 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Video | Text, Image |
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) vs Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning): 68.1% more intelligence, 222.9% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 17.7% slower 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.
- Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning)Qwen3.8 Max (0902)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/qwen3-8-max · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/kimi-k2-6/qwen3-8-max?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill