Kimi K3 (Low) vs Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Kimi K3 (Low) by Kimi or Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Kimi K3 (Low) scores 11.7 points higher (30.1 vs 18.4) but costs 1.3× as much to run the benchmark ($1190 vs $941; both premium class). Pick Kimi K3 (Low) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning).
| Metric | Kimi K3 (Low) | Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 30.1 | 18.4 | −38.9% Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Re… is 38.9% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,190.42 | $940.97 | −21.0% Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Re… is 21.0% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 50.95s | 65.10s | +27.8% Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Re… is 27.8% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $3.00 / $15.0 | $0.60 / $3.60 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) vs Kimi K3 (Low): 38.9% less intelligence, 21.0% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 27.8% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Kimi K3 (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
Kimi K3 (Low)Qwen3.5 397B A17B (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-low/qwen3-5-397b-a17b · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/kimi-k3-low/qwen3-5-397b-a17b?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill