# Kimi K3 vs Qwen Max

> Kimi K3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 59.5 to 34.7 on the Noometry Index. Qwen Max costs 2.1× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Kimi K3's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/kimi-k3-vs-qwen-max
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 19

## Summary

- They share 19 benchmarks with published results for both. Kimi K3 scores higher in 8 categories and Qwen Max in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Kimi K3 leads 74.2 to 22.3.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 97.2% for Kimi K3 and 16.1% for Qwen Max.
- Qwen Max is cheaper at $1.60 / $6.40 per million input/output tokens, against $3 / $15 for Kimi K3.
- Kimi K3 accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 33K.
- Kimi K3 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Kimi K3 | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Moonshot AI | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 59.5 | 34.7 |
| Rank | 15 | 230 |
| Context | 1.05M | 33K |
| Input $/M | $3 | $1.60 |
| Output $/M | $15 | $6.40 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Kimi K3: 61.0 (#10)
- Qwen Max: 30.7 (#292)

| Benchmark | Kimi K3 | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1508 | 1288 |
| DeepSWE | 68.5% | — |
| FrontierCode | 44.2% | — |
| Aider Polyglot | — | 21.8% |
| LMArena WebDev | 1654 | — |
| FrontierSWE | 25.9% | — |
| SciCode | 59.5% | — |
| WeirdML | 82.6% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 1,524 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Kimi K3: 41.8 (#20)
- Qwen Max: —

| Benchmark | Kimi K3 | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 50.6% | — |
| τ²-bench Banking | 37.1% | — |
| PostTrainBench | 32% | — |
| GBAEval | 48.3% | — |
| GDP.pdf | 19% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | 5,165 | — |

## Reasoning

- Kimi K3: 63.0 (#17)
- Qwen Max: 25.1 (#151)

| Benchmark | Kimi K3 | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1496 | 1269 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 60.4% | — |
| SimpleBench | 60.7% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 93.6% | — |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 94.5% | — |
| CritPt | 23.4% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 39% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 26% | — |
| DTBench | 91.2% | — |
| LMCA | 52.7% | — |
| Surface Evolver Bench | 95% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 157.45 | — |
| ForecastBench | 61.1 | — |

## Math

- Kimi K3: 74.2 (#16)
- Qwen Max: 22.3 (#276)

| Benchmark | Kimi K3 | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 97.2% | 16.1% |
| LMArena Math | 1491 | 1275 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 72.2% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 39% | — |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | 87.8% | — |
| ProofBench | 87% | — |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 67.2% |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | — | 1% |

## Knowledge

- Kimi K3: 63.2 (#21)
- Qwen Max: 30.3 (#228)

| Benchmark | Kimi K3 | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 93.1% | 56.1% |
| LMArena Expert | 1521 | 1248 |
| SimpleQA Verified | 50.6% | — |

## Multimodal

- Kimi K3: 37.8 (#70)
- Qwen Max: —

| Benchmark | Kimi K3 | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| Blueprint-Bench 2 | 29.5% | — |
| Furniture Assembly | 34.2% | — |

## Multilingual

- Kimi K3: 56.3 (#21)
- Qwen Max: 41.8 (#202)

| Benchmark | Kimi K3 | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1466 | 1263 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1529 | 1254 |
| LMArena French | 1491 | 1330 |
| LMArena German | 1488 | 1254 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1487 | 1205 |
| LMArena Korean | 1458 | 1142 |
| LMArena Russian | 1482 | 1274 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1472 | 1290 |

## Instruction Following

- Kimi K3: 77.7 (#14)
- Qwen Max: 66.5 (#208)

| Benchmark | Kimi K3 | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1483 | 1262 |

## Long Context

- Kimi K3: 45.8 (#29)
- Qwen Max: 39.4 (#180)

| Benchmark | Kimi K3 | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1494 | 1288 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | — | 66.7% |

## Writing & Preference

- Kimi K3: 76.6 (#4)
- Qwen Max: 47.8 (#205)

| Benchmark | Kimi K3 | Qwen Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1476 | 1282 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1454 | 1248 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1488 | 1277 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 2082 | — |
| EQ-Bench 4 | 1339 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Kimi K3 better than Qwen Max?

Kimi K3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 59.5 to 34.7 on the Noometry Index. Qwen Max costs 2.1× 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 Max?

Qwen Max is cheaper. It lists at $1.60 per million input tokens and $6.40 per million output tokens; Kimi K3 lists at $3 and $15.

### Is Kimi K3 or Qwen Max better for coding?

Kimi K3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 61.0 versus 30.7 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Kimi K3 does, with 1.05M tokens against 33K.

### How many benchmarks do Kimi K3 and Qwen Max share?

19 benchmarks have published results for both models. Kimi K3 has 53 scored results on Noometry and Qwen Max has 23.