Kimi K3 vs Qwen3.8 Max: Specs & Benchmark Comparison
Kimi K3 is developed by Moonshot AI, while Qwen3.8 Max comes from Alibaba. Kimi K3 was released in July 2026, and Qwen3.8 Max followed a month later in August 2026. The two are similar in size, at about 2.8 trillion and 2.4 trillion parameters respectively.
We have 3 benchmark results for Kimi K3 and 2 benchmark results for Qwen3.8 Max, but they were measured on different benchmarks, so there is no like-for-like scoreboard.
Qwen3.8 Max is the cheaper API at $2.50 per million input tokens and $6.25 per million output tokens, about 20% below Kimi K3 at $3 and $15. Both accept a context window of about 1M tokens. Both accept text and images as input.
| Characteristic | Kimi K3 | Qwen3.8 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Moonshot AI | Alibaba |
| Release Date | July 16, 2026 | August 2, 2026 |
| Parameters | 2.8T | 2.4T |
| Multimodal | Yes | Yes |
| Context (input) | 1.0M | 1.0M |
| Context (output) | 1.0M | 131K |
| Input Price / 1M | $3.00 | $2.50 |
| Output Price / 1M | $15.00 | $6.25 |
| Average Score | 95.7% | 93.0% |
Verdict
Qwen3.8 Max leads in 2 out of 4 comparison categories.
Both models show comparable average scores: Kimi K3 — 1.0, Qwen3.8 Max — 0.9.
Qwen3.8 Max is 2.1x cheaper: input $2.50/1M vs $3.00/1M tokens.
Same context size: 1M tokens.
Qwen3.8 Max is newer: released 8/2/2026 vs 7/16/2026.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better for coding — Kimi K3 or Qwen3.8 Max?
Which model is cheaper — Kimi K3 or Qwen3.8 Max?
Which has a larger context window — Kimi K3 or Qwen3.8 Max?
The Kimi K3 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 K3 or Qwen3.8 Max page. See also the complete list of AI model comparisons.