Kimi K3.1 Pro vs Qwen3.8 27B (Medium)
Which is better for the money: Kimi K3.1 Pro by Kimi or Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) 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 27.5 points higher (55.1 vs 27.6) but costs 2.7× as much to run the benchmark ($3117 vs $1165; flagship vs premium cost classes). Pick Kimi K3.1 Pro when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Qwen3.8 27B (Medium).
| Metric | Kimi K3.1 Pro | Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 55.1 | 27.6 | −49.9% Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) is 49.9% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $3,117.31 | $1,165.00 | −62.6% Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) is 62.6% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 42.64s | 55.12s | +29.3% Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) is 29.3% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $0.50 / $3.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) vs Kimi K3.1 Pro: 49.9% less intelligence, 62.6% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 29.3% 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.
- Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Kimi K3.1 ProQwen3.8 27B (Medium)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/qwen3-8-27b-medium · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/kimi-k3-1-pro/qwen3-8-27b-medium?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill