Compare / Qwen3.5-Flash vs Kimi K3

Qwen3.5-Flash vs Kimi K3

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 9 results on 3 sources that measured both models.

AlibabaQwen3.5-Flash $0.065 in · $0.26 out
Moonshot AIKimi K3 Released 16 Jul 2026 · $3.00 in · $15.00 out
Qwen3.5-Flash wins 0Kimi K3 wins 9

Of the 9 results both models have, the better value on each. Results whose reported ranges overlap are too close to call.

Results as of 13 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-13-2e2420e3c5cc). See also Alibaba vs Moonshot AI, every model from both labs.

Qwen3.5-Flash or Kimi K3? The short answer

They score about the same, so pick Qwen3.5-Flash: it costs 53 times less per token.

  • Qwen3.5-Flash is cheaper: $0.11 against $6.00 per million tokens, 53 times less.
  • On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Kimi K3 does better for agents and tool use, writing and sticking to the facts.

Head to head

$0.11
Price per million tokens, blendedlower is better
$6.00
1,000,000
Context window, tokens
1,048,576

Every fact side by side

Qwen3.5-FlashKimi K3
Price per million tokens$0.065 in · $0.26 out$3.00 in · $15.00 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.11$6.00
Cheapest host, blended–$3.70 (Morph, FP8)
Cached input, per million–$0.30 cached input
Intelligence Index–43.6
Spring Prompt overall–49
Output speed, tokens a second–45
Context window1,000,000 tokens1,048,576 tokens
Released–16 Jul 2026
WeightsClosedOpen
Developer based inChinaChina

Prices are the developer's list price where we have read it, otherwise the typical host on OpenRouter; see every model's price. Intelligence and speed from Artificial Analysis.

Which is better for what

Each model's rank among the models on sale today, for each kind of work, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. Further right is better; the better rank is in green.

Product listingsTurning a sparse product feed and photos into listings that can go live not measured 14 of 21
Decks from an analysisTurning a finished analysis into a deck you could present as it is not measured 10 of 20
Marketing planningPlanning a year of ad spend without overspending not measured 8 of 20
Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 143 of 164 34 of 164
Professional workReal tasks from banking, consulting and law, business documents and freelance projects not measured 24 of 51
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge not measured 15 of 198
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 115 of 188 11 of 188
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 119 of 152 28 of 152
Speed under pressureGood decisions against a real clock (fast chess) not measured 21 of 24

From our research

Every shared result

Each model's best result on every measure both have, grouped by benchmark, with the setting that produced it. Under each measure, every model that benchmark has measured is a grey tick, best to the right, so you can see where the two sit in the field. The headline measures of each benchmark come first; the rest are under "Show all". Green marks the better value; where a source reports ranges that overlap, neither is marked.

MeasureQwen3.5-FlashKimi K3
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results
Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 142 · 13 of 387 measured 1,396 1,488max reasoning
Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better 123 · 20 of 163 measured 1,414 1,472max reasoning
Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 137 · 12 of 380 measured 1,403 1,487max reasoning
SimpleQA Verified (Epoch AI) reported by SimpleQA Verified (Epoch AI) · 1 result
Correct answers% of questions, higher is better 64 · 23 of 76 measured 20.3% 50.6%max reasoning
Vending-Bench 2 reported by Vending-Bench 2 · 1 result
Money after a yearUS dollars, higher is better 48 · 24 of 58 measured $462.69 $5,165
Show all 9 results (4 more)
MeasureQwen3.5-FlashKimi K3
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 4 results
Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 167 · 20 of 385 measured 1,337 1,460max reasoning
Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 135 · 10 of 338 measured 1,419 1,533max reasoning
Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 148 · 11 of 387 measured 1,381 1,488max reasoning
Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 149 · 13 of 386 measured 1,367 1,476max reasoning

Quick answers

Is Qwen3.5-Flash better than Kimi K3?

They score about the same, so pick Qwen3.5-Flash: it costs 53 times less per token.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.5-Flash or Kimi K3?

Qwen3.5-Flash is cheaper: $0.11 against $6.00 per million tokens, 53 times less.

Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3.5-Flash or Kimi K3?

Kimi K3 ranks 34 of 164 models on sale for multi-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls, against 143 for Qwen3.5-Flash.

Which is better for writing, Qwen3.5-Flash or Kimi K3?

Kimi K3 ranks 11 of 188 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 115 for Qwen3.5-Flash.

Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3.5-Flash or Kimi K3?

Kimi K3 ranks 28 of 152 models on sale for summarising without inventing things, and factual answers, against 119 for Qwen3.5-Flash.

Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3.5-Flash or Kimi K3?

Kimi K3: 1,048,576 tokens, against 1,000,000 for Qwen3.5-Flash.

Run Qwen3.5-Flash and Kimi K3 on your own prompt

Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.

Try the playgroundTalk to us