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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Kimi K2 Thinking vs MiniMax-M2.7 vs Qwen3.6 35B-A3B

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B comes out ahead, 68 to 61 and 58 on our weighted score, though MiniMax-M2.7 is 6% cheaper per token.

  1. Moonshot AI

    Kimi K2 Thinking

    Released Nov 6, 2025

    58/100
    • ECI146.0
    • Price$0.60 / $2.50
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Kimi K2 Thinking

  2. MiniMax

    MiniMax-M2.7

    Released Mar 18, 2026

    61/100
    • ECI145.9
    • Price$0.30 / $1.20
    • Context205K
    Full specs Remove MiniMax-M2.7
  3. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.6 35B-A3B

    Released Apr 17, 2026

    68/100
    • ECI143.9
    • Price$0.248 / $1.49
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.6 35B-A3B
01 — Verdict

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B is our pick

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B is the better all-round choice, scoring 68/100 against MiniMax-M2.7 (61) and Kimi K2 Thinking (58). It leads on inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

  • CapabilityKimi K2 ThinkingCapabilities Index (ECI): Kimi K2 Thinking 146.0 · MiniMax-M2.7 145.9 · Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 143.9
  • Lowest priceMiniMax-M2.7MiniMax-M2.7 $0.525 · Qwen3.6 35B-A3B $0.557 · Kimi K2 Thinking $1.07 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextKimi K2 Thinking and Qwen3.6 35B-A3BKimi K2 Thinking 262,144 · Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 262,144 · MiniMax-M2.7 204,800 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.6 35B-A3BKimi K2 Thinking: Text · MiniMax-M2.7: Text · Qwen3.6 35B-A3B: Text, Images, Audio, Video
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightKimi K2 ThinkingMiniMax-M2.7Qwen3.6 35B-A3B
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%737370
Price25%486362
Inputs & features15%353590
Context window10%373237
Overall100%58/10061/10068/100
02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

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

Kimi K2 Thinking vs MiniMax-M2.7 vs Qwen3.6 35B-A3B specifications side by side
SpecificationKimi K2 ThinkingMoonshot AIMiniMax-M2.7MiniMaxQwen3.6 35B-A3BAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)146.0 (best)145.9143.9
ECI rank#72 of 148 (best)#73 of 148#83 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions84.2%—84.9% (best)
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics——20.4%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics83.1%—86.7% (best)
Price per million tokens
Input$0.60$0.30$0.248 (best)
Output$2.50$1.20 (best)$1.49
Cached input—$0.06—
Blended (3:1)$1.07$0.525 (best)$0.557
Long-context rateSame rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 10 providersOfficial MiniMax (minimax.io) APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens (best)204,800 tokens262,144 tokens (best)
Max output262,144 tokens (best)131,072 tokens65,536 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesNoNoYes
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoYes
VideoNoNoYes
ReasoningYesYesYes
Tool callingYesYesYes
Structured outputNoNoYes
Availability
WeightsOpenOpenOpen
API model ID—MiniMax-M2.7qwen3.6-35b-a3b
API providers102934 (best)
ReleasedNov 6, 2025Mar 18, 2026Apr 17, 2026
Knowledge cutoffAug 2024——
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 Thinking$11.00
  • MiniMax-M2.7$5.40
  • Qwen3.6 35B-A3B$5.45
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Kimi K2 Thinking, MiniMax-M2.7 or Qwen3.6 35B-A3B?

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B is the better all-round choice, scoring 68/100 against MiniMax-M2.7 (61) and Kimi K2 Thinking (58). It leads on inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Kimi K2 Thinking, MiniMax-M2.7 or Qwen3.6 35B-A3B?

MiniMax-M2.7 is cheaper at $0.30 input / $1.20 output per million tokens (official MiniMax (minimax.io) API price). Qwen3.6 35B-A3B costs $0.248 input / $1.49 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price); Kimi K2 Thinking costs $0.60 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (median across 10 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.525 per million tokens for MiniMax-M2.7 versus $0.557 for Qwen3.6 35B-A3B (1.1× as much) and $1.07 for Kimi K2 Thinking (2× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

Kimi K2 Thinking scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Kimi K2 Thinking 146.0 (#72 of 148), MiniMax-M2.7 145.9 (#73 of 148) and Qwen3.6 35B-A3B 143.9 (#83 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (143.4–147.6 vs 138.2–148.0), so treat the gap as small.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Kimi K2 Thinking, MiniMax-M2.7 and Qwen3.6 35B-A3B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Kimi K2 Thinking leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Kimi K2 Thinking and Qwen3.6 35B-A3B have the largest context windows (262,144 and 262,144 tokens), against 204,800 for MiniMax-M2.7. Maximum output per response: Kimi K2 Thinking up to 262,144, MiniMax-M2.7 up to 131,072, Qwen3.6 35B-A3B up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Kimi K2 Thinking accepts text; MiniMax-M2.7 accepts text; Qwen3.6 35B-A3B accepts text, images, audio and video. Qwen3.6 35B-A3B handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Yes, all three publish their weights, so you can self-host them.

Which is newer?

Qwen3.6 35B-A3B is the newest, released Apr 17, 2026. MiniMax-M2.7 came out Mar 18, 2026; Kimi K2 Thinking came out Nov 6, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Kimi K2 Thinking Aug 2024.

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

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