Model comparison

Kimi K2.5 vs Qwen3.5 35B-A3B

Kimi K2.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 48.1 to 42.0 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 26 shared benchmarks.

Kimi K2.5 Moonshot AI

48.1

Rank #57 Confirmed

Qwen3.5 35B-A3B Alibaba (Qwen)

42.0

Rank #123 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 26 benchmarks with published results for both. Kimi K2.5 scores higher in 8 categories and Qwen3.5 35B-A3B in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in coding, where Kimi K2.5 leads 48.8 to 33.8.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 92.2% for Kimi K2.5 and 70% for Qwen3.5 35B-A3B.
  • Qwen3.5 35B-A3B is cheaper at $0.25 / $2 per million input/output tokens, against $0.45 / $2.25 for Kimi K2.5.

Side by side

Kimi K2.5 and Qwen3.5 35B-A3B specifications
Kimi K2.5Qwen3.5 35B-A3B
ProviderMoonshot AIAlibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index48.142.0
Released2026-01-272026-02-01
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window262K262K
Max output262K66K
Input $ / M tokens$0.45$0.25
Output $ / M tokens$2.25$2
Results tracked5128

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Category by category

Coding Kimi K2.5 leads

Kimi K2.5: 48.8 (#53), Qwen3.5 35B-A3B: 33.8 (#251)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K2.5Qwen3.5 35B-A3B
LMArena WebDev14371254
SciCode49%29.3%
LMArena Coding14741410
SWE-bench Verified73.8%—
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)70.8%—
SWE-bench Multilingual67.3%—
WeirdML45.6%—
ALE-Bench821.65—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Kimi K2.5: 34.2 (#48), Qwen3.5 35B-A3B: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K2.5Qwen3.5 35B-A3B
Terminal-Bench43.2%—
OSWorld63.3%—
Vending-Bench 21,198—

Reasoning Kimi K2.5 leads

Kimi K2.5: 31.2 (#80), Qwen3.5 35B-A3B: 24.6 (#161)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K2.5Qwen3.5 35B-A3B
CritPt3.1%0.6%
Chess Puzzles12%10%
LMArena Hard Prompts14531400
Epoch Capabilities Index148.03142.52
ARC-AGI-211.8%—
SimpleBench46.8%—
Kagi LLM Benchmark78.5%—
NYT Connections (extended)69.9%—
ARC-AGI-165.3%—
EnigmaEval3.4%—
Thematic Generalization69.4%—
DTBench—80%
LMCA—29.5%

Math Kimi K2.5 leads

Kimi K2.5: 51.8 (#53), Qwen3.5 35B-A3B: 39.9 (#97)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K2.5Qwen3.5 35B-A3B
MathArena Final-Answer Competitions62.3%56%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202592.2%70%
LMArena Math14701404
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)27.9%—
FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1)4.2%—

Knowledge Kimi K2.5 leads

Kimi K2.5: 53.6 (#56), Qwen3.5 35B-A3B: 47.8 (#79)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K2.5Qwen3.5 35B-A3B
GPQA Diamond87.6%83.5%
Vectara Hallucination Rate14.2%10.5%
LMArena Expert14661408
Humanity's Last Exam24.4%—
SimpleQA Verified34.3%—

Multimodal Not comparable

Kimi K2.5: 41.1 (#39), Qwen3.5 35B-A3B: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K2.5Qwen3.5 35B-A3B
LMArena Vision1269—
LMArena Document1430—

Multilingual Kimi K2.5 leads

Kimi K2.5: 53.9 (#53), Qwen3.5 35B-A3B: 50.0 (#127)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K2.5Qwen3.5 35B-A3B
LMArena Non-English14331378
LMArena Chinese14951457
LMArena French14541412
LMArena German14411367
LMArena Japanese14211325
LMArena Korean14101356
LMArena Russian14351376
LMArena Spanish14501392

Instruction Following Kimi K2.5 leads

Kimi K2.5: 75.3 (#64), Qwen3.5 35B-A3B: 72.8 (#128)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K2.5Qwen3.5 35B-A3B
LMArena Instruction Following14311379

Long Context Kimi K2.5 leads

Kimi K2.5: 52.1 (#7), Qwen3.5 35B-A3B: 42.4 (#127)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K2.5Qwen3.5 35B-A3B
LMArena Longer Query14451389
Fiction.LiveBench86.1%—
CL-bench19.3%—
CL-bench Life13.2%—

Writing & Preference Kimi K2.5 leads

Kimi K2.5: 65.1 (#53), Qwen3.5 35B-A3B: 57.9 (#124)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K2.5Qwen3.5 35B-A3B
LMArena Text14451395
LMArena Creative Writing14231346
LMArena Multi-Turn14441390
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1579—

Frequently asked questions

Is Kimi K2.5 better than Qwen3.5 35B-A3B?

Kimi K2.5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 48.1 to 42.0 on the Noometry Index.

Which is cheaper, Kimi K2.5 or Qwen3.5 35B-A3B?

Qwen3.5 35B-A3B is cheaper. It lists at $0.25 per million input tokens and $2 per million output tokens; Kimi K2.5 lists at $0.45 and $2.25.

Is Kimi K2.5 or Qwen3.5 35B-A3B better for coding?

Kimi K2.5 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 48.8 versus 33.8 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Both accept 262K tokens.

How many benchmarks do Kimi K2.5 and Qwen3.5 35B-A3B share?

26 benchmarks have published results for both models. Kimi K2.5 has 51 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.5 35B-A3B has 28.

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