Kimi K3 (Low) vs Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Which is better for the money: Kimi K3 (Low) by Kimi or Qwen3.8 Max (0902) by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) scores 15.3 points higher (45.4 vs 30.1) but costs 4.1× as much to run the benchmark ($4935 vs $1190; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.8 Max (0902) when you need intelligence above 30.1, and Kimi K3 (Low) when 30.1 is enough.
| Metric | Kimi K3 (Low) | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 30.1 | 45.4 | +50.8% Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is 50.8% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,190.42 | $4,934.79 | +314.5% Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is 4.1× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 57.21s | 65.39s | +14.3% Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is 14.3% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $3.00 / $15.0 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) vs Kimi K3 (Low): 50.8% more intelligence, 314.5% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 14.3% 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 Max (0902) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
Kimi K3 (Low)Qwen3.8 Max (0902)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-max · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/kimi-k3-low/qwen3-8-max?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill