Kimi K2.7 Code vs Qwen3.8 Max
Which is better for the money: Kimi K2.7 Code by Kimi or Qwen3.8 Max by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-09-09.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Qwen3.8 Max scores 14.0 points higher (40.3 vs 26.3) but costs 3.2× as much to run the benchmark ($3172 vs $993; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.8 Max when you need intelligence above 26.3, and Kimi K2.7 Code when 26.3 is enough.
| Metric | Kimi K2.7 Code | Qwen3.8 Max | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 26.3 | 40.3 | +53.2% Qwen3.8 Max is 53.2% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $992.88 | $3,172.37 | +219.5% Qwen3.8 Max is 3.2× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 41.22s | 65.84s | +59.7% Qwen3.8 Max is 59.7% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.95 / $4.00 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Not reported | Not reported |
Qwen3.8 Max vs Kimi K2.7 Code: 53.2% more intelligence, 219.5% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 59.7% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Kimi K2.7 Code is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GLM-5.3-Flash scores 41.90 for $280.
- Qwen3.8 Max is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Astra (high) scores 51.00 for $2917.
Kimi K2.7 CodeQwen3.8 MaxToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
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