Model comparison

Kimi K3 vs Qwen Plus

Kimi K3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 59.5 to 37.1 on the Noometry Index. Qwen Plus costs 10.0× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Kimi K3's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.

Kimi K3 Moonshot AI

59.5

Rank #15 Confirmed

Qwen Plus Alibaba (Qwen)

37.1

Rank #210 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Kimi K3 scores higher in 8 categories and Qwen Plus in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where Kimi K3 leads 74.2 to 23.3.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 97.2% for Kimi K3 and 17.8% for Qwen Plus.
  • Qwen Plus is cheaper at $0.40 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $3 / $15 for Kimi K3.
  • Kimi K3 accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 1M.
  • Kimi K3 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Kimi K3 and Qwen Plus specifications
Kimi K3Qwen Plus
ProviderMoonshot AIAlibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index59.537.1
Released2026-07-162024-01-25
WeightsOpenProprietary
Context window1.05M1M
Max output1.05M33K
Input $ / M tokens$3$0.40
Output $ / M tokens$15$1.20
Results tracked5320

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Category by category

Coding Kimi K3 leads

Kimi K3: 61.0 (#10), Qwen Plus: 38.9 (#167)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K3Qwen Plus
LMArena Coding15081328
DeepSWE68.5%—
FrontierCode44.2%—
LMArena WebDev1654—
FrontierSWE25.9%—
SciCode59.5%—
WeirdML82.6%—
ALE-Bench1,524—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Kimi K3: 41.8 (#20), Qwen Plus: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K3Qwen Plus
APEX-Agents50.6%—
τ²-bench Banking37.1%—
PostTrainBench32%—
GBAEval48.3%—
GDP.pdf19%—
Vending-Bench 25,165—

Reasoning Kimi K3 leads

Kimi K3: 63.0 (#17), Qwen Plus: 28.4 (#107)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K3Qwen Plus
LMArena Hard Prompts14961317
DTBench91.2%81.1%
LMCA52.7%24%
ARC-AGI-260.4%—
SimpleBench60.7%—
Kagi LLM Benchmark—63.3%
NYT Connections (extended)93.6%—
ARC-AGI-194.5%—
CritPt23.4%—
Chess Puzzles39%—
Mystery Game Puzzles26%—
Surface Evolver Bench95%—
Epoch Capabilities Index157.45—
ForecastBench61.1—

Math Kimi K3 leads

Kimi K3: 74.2 (#16), Qwen Plus: 23.3 (#271)

Knowledge Kimi K3 leads

Kimi K3: 63.2 (#21), Qwen Plus: 27.4 (#251)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K3Qwen Plus
GPQA Diamond93.1%48.1%
LMArena Expert15211328
SimpleQA Verified50.6%—

Multimodal Not comparable

Kimi K3: 37.8 (#70), Qwen Plus: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K3Qwen Plus
Blueprint-Bench 229.5%—
Furniture Assembly34.2%—

Multilingual Kimi K3 leads

Kimi K3: 56.3 (#21), Qwen Plus: 45.1 (#175)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K3Qwen Plus
LMArena Non-English14661310
LMArena Chinese15291347
LMArena Japanese14871251
LMArena Russian14821323
LMArena French1491—
LMArena German1488—
LMArena Korean1458—
LMArena Spanish1472—

Instruction Following Kimi K3 leads

Kimi K3: 77.7 (#14), Qwen Plus: 68.8 (#181)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K3Qwen Plus
LMArena Instruction Following14831303

Long Context Kimi K3 leads

Kimi K3: 45.8 (#29), Qwen Plus: 40.3 (#158)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K3Qwen Plus
LMArena Longer Query14941324

Writing & Preference Kimi K3 leads

Kimi K3: 76.6 (#4), Qwen Plus: 52.2 (#176)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K3Qwen Plus
LMArena Text14761326
LMArena Creative Writing14541293
LMArena Multi-Turn14881336
EQ-Bench Creative Writing2082—
EQ-Bench 41339—

Frequently asked questions

Is Kimi K3 better than Qwen Plus?

Kimi K3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 59.5 to 37.1 on the Noometry Index. Qwen Plus costs 10.0× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Kimi K3's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, Kimi K3 or Qwen Plus?

Qwen Plus is cheaper. It lists at $0.40 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; Kimi K3 lists at $3 and $15.

Is Kimi K3 or Qwen Plus better for coding?

Kimi K3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 61.0 versus 38.9 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Kimi K3 does, with 1.05M tokens against 1M.

How many benchmarks do Kimi K3 and Qwen Plus share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Kimi K3 has 53 scored results on Noometry and Qwen Plus has 20.

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