# Kimi K2.6 vs Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct

> Kimi K2.6 is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.5 to 37.7 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/kimi-k2-6-vs-qwen3-coder-480b-a35b-instruct
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 20

## Summary

- They share 20 benchmarks with published results for both. Kimi K2.6 scores higher in 8 categories and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct in 1 category; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Kimi K2.6 leads 56.8 to 34.9.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is WeirdML: 55.9% for Kimi K2.6 and 41.2% for Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct.
- Kimi K2.6 is cheaper at $0.95 / $4 per million input/output tokens, against $1.50 / $7.50 for Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct.

## Snapshot

| | Kimi K2.6 | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Moonshot AI | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 47.5 | 37.7 |
| Rank | 52 | 186 |
| Context | 262K | 262K |
| Input $/M | $0.95 | $1.50 |
| Output $/M | $4 | $7.50 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Kimi K2.6: 50.5 (#41)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 36.2 (#199)

| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1509 | 1275 |
| WeirdML | 55.9% | 41.2% |
| LMArena Coding | 1488 | 1413 |
| ALE-Bench | 1,093 | 461.45 |
| SWE-bench Verified | 76.7% | — |
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | — | 55.4% |
| SciCode | 53.5% | — |
| GSO | — | 4.9% |
| AlgoTune | — | 1.44 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Kimi K2.6: 21.8 (#128)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 23.7 (#116)

| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | — | 27.2% |
| OSWorld 2.0 | 4.6% | — |
| ExploitBench | 18.4% | — |
| GBAEval | 0.9% | — |
| GDP.pdf | 12% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | 6,205 | — |

## Reasoning

- Kimi K2.6: 39.6 (#51)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 24.7 (#141)

| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1470 | 1372 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 49.5% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 87.2% | — |
| CritPt | 8% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 26% | — |
| EBR-Bench | 2.4% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 18% | — |
| DTBench | 90.9% | — |
| LMCA | 37.3% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 151.03 | — |

## Math

- Kimi K2.6: 56.8 (#34)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 34.9 (#151)

| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1475 | 1364 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 57.2% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 25.6% | — |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | 72.9% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 96.1% | — |
| ProofBench | 16% | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 39% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | 14.6% | — |

## Knowledge

- Kimi K2.6: 53.9 (#48)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 36.4 (#159)

| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1491 | 1337 |
| GPQA Diamond | 90.8% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 34.9% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 10.8% | — |

## Multimodal

- Kimi K2.6: 31.8 (#95)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: —

| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1282 | — |
| Blueprint-Bench 2 | 3.9% | — |
| Furniture Assembly | 21.7% | — |
| LMArena Document | 1451 | — |

## Multilingual

- Kimi K2.6: 55.1 (#35)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 47.8 (#143)

| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1446 | 1345 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1521 | 1356 |
| LMArena French | 1471 | 1394 |
| LMArena German | 1449 | 1324 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1442 | 1309 |
| LMArena Korean | 1428 | 1307 |
| LMArena Russian | 1446 | 1367 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1463 | 1360 |

## Instruction Following

- Kimi K2.6: 76.5 (#40)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 71.8 (#142)

| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1451 | 1356 |

## Long Context

- Kimi K2.6: 44.9 (#50)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 42.0 (#126)

| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1468 | 1379 |

## Writing & Preference

- Kimi K2.6: 68.7 (#25)
- Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct: 55.5 (#142)

| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1455 | 1356 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1434 | 1333 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1453 | 1365 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1725 | — |
| EQ-Bench 4 | 1202 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Kimi K2.6 better than Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct?

Kimi K2.6 is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.5 to 37.7 on the Noometry Index.

### Which is cheaper, Kimi K2.6 or Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct?

Kimi K2.6 is cheaper. It lists at $0.95 per million input tokens and $4 per million output tokens; Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct lists at $1.50 and $7.50.

### Is Kimi K2.6 or Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct better for coding?

Kimi K2.6 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 50.5 versus 36.2 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Both accept 262K tokens.

### How many benchmarks do Kimi K2.6 and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct share?

20 benchmarks have published results for both models. Kimi K2.6 has 51 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3-Coder 480B-A35B Instruct has 25.