Kimi K3.1 Pro vs Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Kimi K3.1 Pro by Kimi or Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) 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
Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 33.7 points higher (55.1 vs 21.4) but costs 2.7× as much to run the benchmark ($3117 vs $1145; flagship vs premium cost classes). Pick Kimi K3.1 Pro when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning).
| Metric | Kimi K3.1 Pro | Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 55.1 | 21.4 | −61.2% Qwen3.6 27B (Reasonin… is 61.2% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $3,117.31 | $1,145.36 | −63.3% Qwen3.6 27B (Reasonin… is 63.3% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 42.64s | 112.14s | +163.0% Qwen3.6 27B (Reasonin… is 163.0% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $0.60 / $3.60 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) vs Kimi K3.1 Pro: 61.2% less intelligence, 63.3% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 163.0% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Kimi K3.1 Pro is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
- Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Kimi K3.1 ProQwen3.6 27B (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-k3-1-pro/qwen3-6-27b · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/kimi-k3-1-pro/qwen3-6-27b?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill