Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 16, 2026

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 vs Qwen 3 Max benchmark

Name: MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 vs Qwen 3 Max AI benchmark comparison
Creator: CompareLLM
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This page compares MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 (Moonshot) and Qwen 3 Max (Alibaba) using the latest snapshots we have as of Aug 16, 2026. On preference Elo, Qwen 3 Max is ahead by 3 points (1,518 vs 1,515; seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). On SWE-bench coding, MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 resolves 71.3% versus 67.8% (seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). Qwen 3 Max streams faster (80 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

Qwen 3 Max

Alibaba flagship. Strong math and multilingual code.

Elo 1,518$3.9/1M out

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Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 (5)vsQwen 3 Max (4)

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5: 5W (56%)Overall: MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5Qwen 3 Max: 4W (44%)

← MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.51 tiesQwen 3 Max →

Qwen 3 Max (3/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

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

Preference Elo

1,515vs1,518

Coding Elo

1,520vs1,526

SWE-bench

71.3%vs67.8%

LiveBench

67.2%vs69.4%

GPQA Diamond

87.6%vs83.1%

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5: 2WQwen 3 Max: 3W

Tied (1/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

72 tok/svs80 tok/s

Time to first token

270 msvs280 ms

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5: 1WQwen 3 Max: 1W

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$2.85/1Mvs$3.9/1M

Input price

$0.57/1Mvs$0.78/1M

Context window

262kvs262k

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5: 2WQwen 3 Max: 0W

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

Qwen 3 Max

3 pts advantage

Throughput Speed

Qwen 3 Max

8 tok/s faster

Price Efficiency

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5

$1.05/1M cheaper

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

—

Elo

High is better

1,515

EloHigh is better

1,518

Code Elo

High is better

1,520

Code EloHigh is better

1,526

LiveBench

High is better

67.2%

LiveBenchHigh is better

69.4%+3%

SWE-bench

High is better

+5%71.3%

SWE-benchHigh is better

67.8%

GPQA

High is better

+5%87.6%

GPQAHigh is better

83.1%

TTFT

Low is better

+4%270 ms

TTFTLow is better

280 ms

Speed

High is better

72 tok/s

SpeedHigh is better

80 tok/s+11%

In $

Low is better

+37%$0.57/1M

In $Low is better

$0.78/1M

Out $

Low is better

+37%$2.85/1M

Out $Low is better

$3.9/1M

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 27% 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

Qwen 3 Max$85.80 / mo

In: $27.30Out: $58.50

Estimated Cost Delta

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 is estimated to save $23.10/month ($277/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
MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5:Pick MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 when time-to-first-token matters more than peak Elo.
3
Qwen 3 Max:Pick Qwen 3 Max 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 UIMoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5

Lower TTFT (270 ms).

Long-document RAGMoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5

Larger window (262k).

Screenshots / visionQwen 3 Max

Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Qwen 3 Max).

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	MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5	Lower TTFT (270 ms).
Long-document RAG	MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5	Larger window (262k).
Screenshots / vision	Qwen 3 Max	Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Qwen 3 Max).

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

View all news

launchApr 18, 2026

Qwen 3 Max: Alibaba’s flagship for math and multilingual code

Closed flagship. Strong math. Compare to Sol and Opus on GPQA and SWE-bench, not on brand heat.

launchSep 20, 2025

Qwen3 235B: the open MoE Qwen, not the Max SKU

Sep 2025 open-weight mixture-of-experts. Self-host path. Don’t confuse it with Qwen 3 Max.

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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

Qwen 3 Max

Elo 1,518

LiveBench69.4%

SWE-bench67.8%

Speed80 tok/s

Output cost$3.9/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 or Qwen 3 Max?: Qwen 3 Max has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,518). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.
Which is better at coding, MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 or Qwen 3 Max?: MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 leads SWE-bench at 71.3% vs 67.8%. 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 $3.9/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 or Qwen 3 Max?: MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 has the lower time-to-first-token (270 ms vs 280 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?: Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.
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 Qwen 3 Max 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 Qwen 3 Max matchups →

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

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 vs Qwen 3 Max benchmark

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 (5)vsQwen 3 Max (4)

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5: 5W (56%)Overall: MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5Qwen 3 Max: 4W (44%)

← MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.51 tiesQwen 3 Max →

Qwen 3 Max (3/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

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

Preference Elo

1,515vs1,518

Coding Elo

1,520vs1,526

SWE-bench

71.3%vs67.8%

LiveBench

67.2%vs69.4%

GPQA Diamond

87.6%vs83.1%

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5: 2WQwen 3 Max: 3W

Tied (1/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

72 tok/svs80 tok/s

Time to first token

270 msvs280 ms

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5: 1WQwen 3 Max: 1W

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$2.85/1Mvs$3.9/1M

Input price

$0.57/1Mvs$0.78/1M

Context window

262kvs262k

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5: 2WQwen 3 Max: 0W

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 UIMoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5

Lower TTFT (270 ms).

Long-document RAGMoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5

Larger window (262k).

Screenshots / visionQwen 3 Max

Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Qwen 3 Max).

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	MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5	Lower TTFT (270 ms).
Long-document RAG	MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5	Larger window (262k).
Screenshots / vision	Qwen 3 Max	Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Qwen 3 Max).

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 or Qwen 3 Max?

Qwen 3 Max has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,518). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.

Which is better at coding, MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 or Qwen 3 Max?

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 leads SWE-bench at 71.3% vs 67.8%. 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 $3.9/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.

Which is faster, MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 or Qwen 3 Max?

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 has the lower time-to-first-token (270 ms vs 280 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?

Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.

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 Qwen 3 Max 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

Qwen 3 Max

Qwen 3 Max

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Qwen 3 Max: Alibaba’s flagship for math and multilingual code

Qwen3 235B: the open MoE Qwen, not the Max SKU

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

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CompareLLM Matrix

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5

Qwen 3 Max

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

Qwen 3 Max

Qwen 3 Max

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Qwen 3 Max: Alibaba’s flagship for math and multilingual code

Qwen3 235B: the open MoE Qwen, not the Max SKU

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

Share card

CompareLLM Matrix

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5

Qwen 3 Max

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons