ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Kimi K2.6 vs Qwen3.8 Max

Qwen3.8 Max comes out ahead, 69 to 65 on our weighted score, though Kimi K2.6 is 43% cheaper per token.

  1. Moonshot AI

    Kimi K2.6

    Released Apr 21, 2026

    65/100
    • ECI151.1
    • Price$0.95 / $4.00
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Kimi K2.6
  2. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.8 Max

    Released Aug 3, 2026

    69/100
    • ECI156.6
    • Price$2.00 / $6.00
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.8 Max

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Qwen3.8 Max is our pick

Qwen3.8 Max is the better all-round choice, scoring 69/100 against Kimi K2.6 (65). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. Kimi K2.6 wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityQwen3.8 MaxCapabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.8 Max 156.6 · Kimi K2.6 151.1
  • Lowest priceKimi K2.6Kimi K2.6 $1.71 · Qwen3.8 Max $3.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3.8 MaxQwen3.8 Max 1,000,000 · Kimi K2.6 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.8 MaxKimi K2.6: Text, Images, Video · Qwen3.8 Max: Text, Images, PDFs, Video
  • Self-hostingKimi K2.6Publishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightKimi K2.6Qwen3.8 Max
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%7986
Price25%3927
Inputs & features15%8090
Context window10%3760
Overall100%65/10069/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Kimi K2.6 vs Qwen3.8 Max specifications side by side
SpecificationKimi K2.6Moonshot AIQwen3.8 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)151.1156.6 (best)
ECI rank#45 of 148#20 of 148 (best)
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions90.8%92.7% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics57.2%74.7% (best)
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics96.1%99.4% (best)
SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues76.7%—
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions34.9%45.8% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$0.95 (best)$2.00
Output$4.00 (best)$6.00
Cached input$0.16 (best)$0.25
Blended (3:1)$1.71 (best)$3.00
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Moonshot AI APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens1,000,000 tokens (best)
Max output262,144 tokens (best)131,072 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesYes
PDFsNoYes
AudioNoNo
VideoYesYes
ReasoningYesYeslow · medium · xhigh
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputYesYes
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietary
API model IDkimi-k2.6qwen3.8-max
API providers46 (best)25
ReleasedApr 21, 2026Aug 3, 2026
Knowledge cutoffJan 2025—
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • Kimi K2.6$17.50
  • Qwen3.8 Max$32.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Kimi K2.6 or Qwen3.8 Max?

Qwen3.8 Max is the better all-round choice, scoring 69/100 against Kimi K2.6 (65). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. Kimi K2.6 wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Kimi K2.6 or Qwen3.8 Max?

Kimi K2.6 is cheaper at $0.95 input / $4.00 output per million tokens (official Moonshot AI API price). Qwen3.8 Max costs $2.00 input / $6.00 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $1.71 per million tokens for Kimi K2.6 versus $3.00 for Qwen3.8 Max (1.8× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Qwen3.8 Max scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3.8 Max 156.6 (#20 of 148) and Kimi K2.6 151.1 (#45 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (154.5–158.8 vs 149.1–152.8), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Qwen3.8 Max 92.7%, Kimi K2.6 90.8%; FrontierMath Tiers 1–3 — Qwen3.8 Max 74.7%, Kimi K2.6 57.2%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Qwen3.8 Max 99.4%, Kimi K2.6 96.1%; SimpleQA Verified — Qwen3.8 Max 45.8%, Kimi K2.6 34.9%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3.8 Max yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3.8 Max leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3.8 Max has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Kimi K2.6. Maximum output per response: Kimi K2.6 up to 262,144, Qwen3.8 Max up to 131,072 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Kimi K2.6 accepts text, images and video; Qwen3.8 Max accepts text, images, PDFs and video. Qwen3.8 Max handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Kimi K2.6 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Qwen3.8 Max is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.8 Max is the newest, released Aug 3, 2026. Kimi K2.6 came out Apr 21, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Kimi K2.6 Jan 2025.

How do you decide the winner?

Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

Related comparisons