Kimi K2.6 vs Qwen3.8 Max: Specs & Benchmark Comparison
Kimi K2.6 is developed by Moonshot AI, while Qwen3.8 Max comes from Alibaba. Kimi K2.6 was released in April 2026, and Qwen3.8 Max followed 4 months later in August 2026. Qwen3.8 Max is the larger model at roughly 2.4 trillion parameters, against 1.0 trillion for Kimi K2.6.
The two models share 8 published benchmarks. Qwen3.8 Max leads on 8 of them. The widest gaps are on FrontierSWE, where Qwen3.8 Max scores 73.5% against 27.0%; Toolathlon, where Qwen3.8 Max scores 72.5% against 50.0%. Averaged across everything we track, Kimi K2.6 sits at 71.2% and Qwen3.8 Max at 71.0%.
Kimi K2.6 is the cheaper API at $1.20 per million input tokens and $4.50 per million output tokens, roughly 2 times cheaper than Qwen3.8 Max at $2.50 and $6.25. Qwen3.8 Max takes the larger context window at 1M tokens, compared with 262K for Kimi K2.6. Both accept text and images as input.
| Characteristic | Kimi K2.6 | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Moonshot AI | Alibaba |
| Release Date | April 20, 2026 | August 2, 2026 |
| Parameters | 1.0T | 2.4T |
| Multimodal | Yes | Yes |
| Context (input) | 262K | 1.0M |
| Context (output) | 131K | 131K |
| Input Price / 1M | $1.20 | $2.50 |
| Output Price / 1M | $4.50 | $6.25 |
| Average Score | 71.2% | 71.0% |
| Benchmarks | ||
| FrontierSWE | 27.0% | 73.5% |
| Toolathlon | 50.0% | 72.5% |
| OSWorld-Verified | 73.1% | 86.1% |
| SWE-Bench Pro | 58.6% | 67.7% |
| Humanity's Last Exam | 36.4% | 43.6% |
| MMMU-Pro | 80.1% | 82.3% |
| GPQA | 90.5% | 92.6% |
| WideSearch | 80.8% | 81.9% |
Visual Benchmark Comparison
Verdict
Qwen3.8 Max leads in 2 out of 4 comparison categories.
Both models show comparable average scores: Kimi K2.6 — 0.7, Qwen3.8 Max — 0.7.
Kimi K2.6 is 1.5x cheaper: input $1.20/1M vs $2.50/1M tokens.
Qwen3.8 Max supports a larger context: 1M vs 262K tokens.
Qwen3.8 Max is newer: released 8/2/2026 vs 4/20/2026.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better for coding — Kimi K2.6 or Qwen3.8 Max?
Which model is cheaper — Kimi K2.6 or Qwen3.8 Max?
Which has a larger context window — Kimi K2.6 or Qwen3.8 Max?
The Kimi K2.6 and Qwen3.8 Max comparison is updated for 2026. Data includes benchmark results, API pricing, context window size and other specifications. For more detailed information, visit the Kimi K2.6 or Qwen3.8 Max page. See also the complete list of AI model comparisons.