ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Kimi K2 Thinking vs Qwen3 Max

Kimi K2 Thinking comes out ahead, 58 to 50 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  1. Our pick

    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. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 Max

    Released Sep 23, 2025

    50/100
    • ECI142.4
    • Price$1.20 / $6.00
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 Max

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Kimi K2 Thinking is our pick

Kimi K2 Thinking is the better all-round choice, scoring 58/100 against Qwen3 Max (50). It leads on capability, price and 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 · Qwen3 Max 142.4
  • Lowest priceKimi K2 ThinkingKimi K2 Thinking $1.07 · Qwen3 Max $2.40 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextAbout the sameKimi K2 Thinking 262,144 · Qwen3 Max 262,144 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsKimi K2 Thinking: Text · Qwen3 Max: Text
  • Self-hostingKimi K2 ThinkingPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightKimi K2 ThinkingQwen3 Max
CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI)50%7368
Price25%4832
Inputs & features15%3525
Context window10%3737
Overall100%58/10050/100
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 Qwen3 Max specifications side by side
SpecificationKimi K2 ThinkingMoonshot AIQwen3 MaxAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)146.0 (best)142.4
ECI rank#72 of 148 (best)#91 of 148
GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions84.2% (best)72.6%
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics—19.0%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics83.1% (best)73.3%
SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions—48.8%
Price per million tokens
Input$0.60 (best)$1.20
Output$2.50 (best)$6.00
Cached input——
Blended (3:1)$1.07 (best)$2.40
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 10 providersOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens262,144 tokens
Max output262,144 tokens (best)65,536 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoNo
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningYesNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietary
API model ID—qwen3-max
API providers1016 (best)
ReleasedNov 6, 2025Sep 23, 2025
Knowledge cutoffAug 2024Apr 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 Thinking$11.00
  • Qwen3 Max$24.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Kimi K2 Thinking or Qwen3 Max?

Kimi K2 Thinking is the better all-round choice, scoring 58/100 against Qwen3 Max (50). It leads on capability, price and inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

Which is cheaper, Kimi K2 Thinking or Qwen3 Max?

Kimi K2 Thinking is cheaper at $0.60 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (median across 10 API providers). Qwen3 Max costs $1.20 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 $1.07 per million tokens for Kimi K2 Thinking versus $2.40 for Qwen3 Max (2.2× 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) and Qwen3 Max 142.4 (#91 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (143.4–147.6 vs 140.0–144.6), so treat the gap as small. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Kimi K2 Thinking 84.2%, Qwen3 Max 72.6%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Kimi K2 Thinking 83.1%, Qwen3 Max 73.3%.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Kimi K2 Thinking and Qwen3 Max 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. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Kimi K2 Thinking and Qwen3 Max share the same 262,144-token context window. Maximum output per response: Kimi K2 Thinking up to 262,144, Qwen3 Max up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Kimi K2 Thinking accepts text; Qwen3 Max accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

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

Which is newer?

Kimi K2 Thinking is the newest, released Nov 6, 2025. Qwen3 Max came out Sep 23, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: Kimi K2 Thinking Aug 2024, Qwen3 Max Apr 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