Model comparison
Kimi K2.6 vs Qwen3 Max
Kimi K2.6 is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.5 to 43.5 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 29 shared benchmarks.
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 29 benchmarks with published results for both. Kimi K2.6 scores higher in 8 categories and Qwen3 Max in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Kimi K2.6 leads 56.8 to 37.6.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is NYT Connections (extended): 87.2% for Kimi K2.6 and 30.1% for Qwen3 Max.
- Kimi K2.6 is cheaper at $0.95 / $4 per million input/output tokens, against $1.20 / $6 for Qwen3 Max.
- Kimi K2.6 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Kimi K2.6 | Qwen3 Max | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Moonshot AI | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 47.5 | 43.5 |
| Released | 2026-04-20 | 2025-09-23 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | 262K | 262K |
| Max output | 262K | 66K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.95 | $1.20 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $4 | $6 |
| Results tracked | 51 | 33 |
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Category by category
Coding Kimi K2.6 leads
Kimi K2.6: 50.5 (#41), Qwen3 Max: 42.4 (#93)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1488 | 1456 |
| ALE-Bench | 1,093 | 370.45 |
| SWE-bench Verified | 76.7% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1509 | — |
| SciCode | 53.5% | — |
| WeirdML | 55.9% | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Kimi K2.6: 21.8 (#128), Qwen3 Max: —
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Vending-Bench 2 | 6,205 | 71.56 |
| OSWorld 2.0 | 4.6% | — |
| ExploitBench | 18.4% | — |
| GBAEval | 0.9% | — |
| GDP.pdf | 12% | — |
Reasoning Kimi K2.6 leads
Kimi K2.6: 39.6 (#51), Qwen3 Max: 22.0 (#186)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| NYT Connections (extended) | 87.2% | 30.1% |
| Chess Puzzles | 26% | 4% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1470 | 1448 |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 18% | 5% |
| DTBench | 90.9% | 82.1% |
| LMCA | 37.3% | 28.3% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 151.03 | 142.41 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 72.5% |
| CritPt | 8% | — |
| EBR-Bench | 2.4% | — |
Math Kimi K2.6 leads
Kimi K2.6: 56.8 (#34), Qwen3 Max: 37.6 (#94)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 57.2% | 18.9% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 96.1% | 73.3% |
| LMArena Math | 1475 | 1447 |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 25.6% | — |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | 72.9% | — |
| ProofBench | 16% | — |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 97.1% |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 39% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | 14.6% | — |
Knowledge Kimi K2.6 leads
Kimi K2.6: 53.9 (#48), Qwen3 Max: 48.1 (#72)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 90.8% | 72.6% |
| SimpleQA Verified | 34.9% | 48.7% |
| LMArena Expert | 1491 | 1457 |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 10.8% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Kimi K2.6: 31.8 (#95), Qwen3 Max: —
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1282 | — |
| Blueprint-Bench 2 | 3.9% | — |
| Furniture Assembly | 21.7% | — |
| LMArena Document | 1451 | — |
Multilingual Kimi K2.6 leads
Kimi K2.6: 55.1 (#35), Qwen3 Max: 53.9 (#58)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1446 | 1429 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1521 | 1479 |
| LMArena French | 1471 | 1450 |
| LMArena German | 1449 | 1463 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1442 | 1399 |
| LMArena Korean | 1428 | 1397 |
| LMArena Russian | 1446 | 1428 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1463 | 1463 |
Instruction Following Kimi K2.6 leads
Kimi K2.6: 76.5 (#40), Qwen3 Max: 75.0 (#81)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1451 | 1420 |
Long Context Kimi K2.6 leads
Kimi K2.6: 44.9 (#50), Qwen3 Max: 41.6 (#129)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1468 | 1439 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | — | 66.7% |
| CL-bench | — | 14.5% |
Writing & Preference Kimi K2.6 leads
Kimi K2.6: 68.7 (#25), Qwen3 Max: 62.6 (#72)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1455 | 1439 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1434 | 1401 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1453 | 1446 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1725 | — |
| EQ-Bench 4 | 1202 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Kimi K2.6 better than Qwen3 Max?
Kimi K2.6 is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.5 to 43.5 on the Noometry Index.
Which is cheaper, Kimi K2.6 or Qwen3 Max?
Kimi K2.6 is cheaper. It lists at $0.95 per million input tokens and $4 per million output tokens; Qwen3 Max lists at $1.20 and $6.
Is Kimi K2.6 or Qwen3 Max better for coding?
Kimi K2.6 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 50.5 versus 42.4 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Both accept 262K tokens.
How many benchmarks do Kimi K2.6 and Qwen3 Max share?
29 benchmarks have published results for both models. Kimi K2.6 has 51 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 Max has 33.