Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 16, 2026

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 vs Qwen3.8 27B benchmark

Name: MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 vs Qwen3.8 27B AI benchmark comparison
Creator: CompareLLM
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This page compares MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 (Moonshot) and Qwen3.8 27B (Alibaba) using the latest snapshots we have as of Aug 16, 2026. On preference Elo, MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 is ahead by 117 points (1,515 vs 1,398; seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). On SWE-bench coding, MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 resolves 71.3% versus 58.8% (seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). Qwen3.8 27B streams faster (152 tok/s) while MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 is the cheaper output token ($2.85/1M). MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 has the larger context window (262k tokens). Every cell below is a dated snapshot from a named public source — we do not invent missing scores, and we do not run SWE-bench ourselves.

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Moonshot

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5

Auto-discovered from OpenRouter (moonshotai/kimi-k2.5). Preview until a second source matches.

Elo 1,515$2.8499999999999996/1M out

Alibaba

Qwen3.8 27B

Alibaba open-weight 27B drop dated Aug 14 2026. Dense enough to self-host; not a frontier MoE.

Elo 1,398$3.1999999999999997/1M out

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Model A

Model B

Quick vs:vs Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude 3.7 Sonnet

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 (6)vsQwen3.8 27B (3)

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5: 6W (67%)Overall: MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5Qwen3.8 27B: 3W (33%)

← MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.51 tiesQwen3.8 27B →

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,515vs1,398

Coding Elo

1,520vs1,422

SWE-bench

71.3%vs58.8%

LiveBench

67.2%vs60.6%

GPQA Diamond

87.6%vs73.4%

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5: 5WQwen3.8 27B: 0W

Qwen3.8 27B (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

72 tok/svs152 tok/s

Time to first token

270 msvs140 ms

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5: 0WQwen3.8 27B: 2W

Tied (1/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$2.85/1Mvs$3.2/1M

Input price

$0.57/1Mvs$0.45/1M

Context window

262kvs262k

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5: 1WQwen3.8 27B: 1W

Capability Matchup Radar

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Each spoke is a skill. Farther from the center is better (0–100th percentile). Tap any dot to inspect details.

Tap any node to inspect

Percentile 0–100

Dimensional AdvantageMoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 4/6

Preference Elo

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5

117 pts advantage

Throughput Speed

Qwen3.8 27B

80 tok/s faster

Price Efficiency

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5

$0.35/1M cheaper

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

—

Elo

High is better

+8%1,515

EloHigh is better

1,398

Code Elo

High is better

+7%1,520

Code EloHigh is better

1,422

LiveBench

High is better

+11%67.2%

LiveBenchHigh is better

60.6%

SWE-bench

High is better

+21%71.3%

SWE-benchHigh is better

58.8%

GPQA

High is better

+19%87.6%

GPQAHigh is better

73.4%

TTFT

Low is better

270 ms

TTFTLow is better

140 ms+93%

Speed

High is better

72 tok/s

SpeedHigh is better

152 tok/s+111%

In $

Low is better

$0.57/1M

In $Low is better

$0.45/1M+27%

Out $

Low is better

+12%$2.85/1M

Out $Low is better

$3.2/1M

Context

High is better

262k

ContextHigh is better

262k

Interactive Simulator

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Simulate monthly production API costs based on published $/1M tokens.

Save up to 2% with MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5

Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo

Quick Presets:

Token Ratio (In vs Out)70% In / 30% Out

RAG / Search (10% out)Coding / Chat (50% out)

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5$62.70 / mo

In: $19.95Out: $42.75

Qwen3.8 27B$63.75 / mo

In: $15.75Out: $48.00

Estimated Cost Delta

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 is estimated to save $1.05/month ($13/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

1
MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5:Pick MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 when repo-level coding accuracy is the constraint.
2
Qwen3.8 27B:Pick Qwen3.8 27B when time-to-first-token matters more than peak Elo.
3
MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5:Pick MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 as the default general assistant.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsMoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5

Higher SWE-bench (71.3%).

High-volume chatMoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5

Lower output list price ($2.85/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIQwen3.8 27B

Lower TTFT (140 ms).

Long-document RAGMoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5

Larger window (262k).

Screenshots / visionMoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5	Higher SWE-bench (71.3%).
High-volume chat	MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5	Lower output list price ($2.85/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Qwen3.8 27B	Lower TTFT (140 ms).
Long-document RAG	MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5	Larger window (262k).
Screenshots / vision	MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5	MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

View all news

launchAug 14, 2026

Qwen3.8 27B (Aug 14): dense enough to self-host, not a frontier MoE

Alibaba open-weight 27B drop. Local/open-weight lists should see it. It will not win frontier-agents.

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LIVE

Moonshot

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5

Elo 1,515

LiveBench67.2%

SWE-bench71.3%

Speed72 tok/s

Output cost$2.85/1M

Alibaba

Qwen3.8 27B

Elo 1,398

LiveBench60.6%

SWE-bench58.8%

Speed152 tok/s

Output cost$3.2/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 or Qwen3.8 27B?: MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,515). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.
Which is better at coding, MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 or Qwen3.8 27B?: MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 leads SWE-bench at 71.3% vs 58.8%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.
Which is cheaper to run in production?: MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 output tokens are $2.85/1M versus $3.2/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 or Qwen3.8 27B?: Qwen3.8 27B has the lower time-to-first-token (140 ms vs 270 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.
Which has the larger context window?: MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 accepts 262k tokens versus 262k.
Can I self-host either model?: Qwen3.8 27B is marked open-weights in our catalog. The other side is a closed API. Check the provider license before you ship weights.
Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?: No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.
What does preference Elo mean on this page?: Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 and Qwen3.8 27B Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 matchups →|All Qwen3.8 27B matchups →

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 vs MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 (previous kimi)MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 vs Kimi K3 (next kimi)Qwen3.8 27B vs Qwen 3 Max (previous qwen)Qwen 3 Max vs MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 Qwen QwQ 32B vs MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 Qwen 2.5 Plus vs Qwen3.8 27B

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 vs Qwen3.8 27B benchmark

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 (6)vsQwen3.8 27B (3)

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5: 6W (67%)Overall: MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5Qwen3.8 27B: 3W (33%)

← MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.51 tiesQwen3.8 27B →

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,515vs1,398

Coding Elo

1,520vs1,422

SWE-bench

71.3%vs58.8%

LiveBench

67.2%vs60.6%

GPQA Diamond

87.6%vs73.4%

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5: 5WQwen3.8 27B: 0W

Qwen3.8 27B (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

72 tok/svs152 tok/s

Time to first token

270 msvs140 ms

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5: 0WQwen3.8 27B: 2W

Tied (1/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$2.85/1Mvs$3.2/1M

Input price

$0.57/1Mvs$0.45/1M

Context window

262kvs262k

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5: 1WQwen3.8 27B: 1W

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsMoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5

Higher SWE-bench (71.3%).

High-volume chatMoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5

Lower output list price ($2.85/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIQwen3.8 27B

Lower TTFT (140 ms).

Long-document RAGMoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5

Larger window (262k).

Screenshots / visionMoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5	Higher SWE-bench (71.3%).
High-volume chat	MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5	Lower output list price ($2.85/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Qwen3.8 27B	Lower TTFT (140 ms).
Long-document RAG	MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5	Larger window (262k).
Screenshots / vision	MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5	MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 or Qwen3.8 27B?

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,515). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.

Which is better at coding, MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 or Qwen3.8 27B?

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 leads SWE-bench at 71.3% vs 58.8%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.

Which is cheaper to run in production?

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 output tokens are $2.85/1M versus $3.2/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.

Which is faster, MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 or Qwen3.8 27B?

Qwen3.8 27B has the lower time-to-first-token (140 ms vs 270 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.

Which has the larger context window?

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 accepts 262k tokens versus 262k.

Can I self-host either model?

Qwen3.8 27B is marked open-weights in our catalog. The other side is a closed API. Check the provider license before you ship weights.

Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?

No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.

What does preference Elo mean on this page?

Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 and Qwen3.8 27B Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Intelligence & Reasoning

Speed & Latency

Pricing & Capacity

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5

Qwen3.8 27B

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Qwen3.8 27B (Aug 14): dense enough to self-host, not a frontier MoE

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

Share card

CompareLLM Matrix

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5

Qwen3.8 27B

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Intelligence & Reasoning

Speed & Latency

Pricing & Capacity

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5

Qwen3.8 27B

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Qwen3.8 27B (Aug 14): dense enough to self-host, not a frontier MoE

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

Share card

CompareLLM Matrix

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5

Qwen3.8 27B

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons