Kimi K3 (Low) vs Qwen3.8 27B (Medium)
Which is better for the money: Kimi K3 (Low) by Kimi or Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Kimi K3 (Low) scores 2.5 points higher (30.1 vs 27.6) but costs 1.0× as much to run the benchmark ($1190 vs $1165; both premium class). Pick Kimi K3 (Low) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Qwen3.8 27B (Medium).
| Metric | Kimi K3 (Low) | Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 30.1 | 27.6 | −8.3% Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) is 8.3% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,190.42 | $1,165.00 | −2.1% Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) is 2.1% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 51.29s | 56.59s | +10.3% Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) is 10.3% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $3.00 / $15.0 | $0.50 / $3.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) vs Kimi K3 (Low): 8.3% less intelligence, 2.1% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 10.3% 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.
- Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Kimi K3 (Low)Qwen3.8 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-low/qwen3-8-27b-medium · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/kimi-k3-low/qwen3-8-27b-medium?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill