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Kimi-k1.5 vs Qwen3.8 Max

Qwen3.8 Max leads the LLM Stats Score 51.9 to 17.2.

Moonshot AI · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Qwen3.8 Max leads the overall LLM Stats Score 51.9 to 17.2, ranking #11 overall.

Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose Kimi-k1.5

  • you are already invested in the Moonshot AI ecosystem

Choose Qwen3.8 Max

  • overall performance matters — it scores 51.9 and ranks #11 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning — it leads those capability indexes
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Aug 2026
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Kimi-k1.5
Moonshot AI
Qwen3.8 Max
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
17.2
#217
51.9
#11
Reasoning
16.4
#214
50.6
#11
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
—
—
Input price
— / M
$1.65 / M
Output price
— / M
$4.95 / M
Context window
—
256,000

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

3 shared
Index
Kimi-k1.5
Qwen3.8 Max
Math
20.2#160
33.8#52
Vision
11.0#111
37.7#5
Multimodal
14.7#92
39.4#1
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

9 reported for Kimi-k1.5 · 42 for Qwen3.8 Max

No common benchmarks found

Kimi-k1.5 and Qwen3.8 Maxdon't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Qwen3.8 Max specifies input context (256,000 tokens). Only Qwen3.8 Max specifies output context (256,000 tokens).

Moonshot AI
Kimi-k1.5
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team
Qwen3.8 Max
Input256,000 tokens
Output256,000 tokens
Fri Sep 11 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Both Kimi-k1.5 and Qwen3.8 Max support multimodal inputs.

They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.

Kimi-k1.5

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Qwen3.8 Max

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Kimi-k1.5 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Qwen3.8 Max uses Qwen3.8-Max License.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

Kimi-k1.5

Proprietary

Closed source

Qwen3.8 Max

Qwen3.8-Max License

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Kimi-k1.5 was released on 2025-01-20, while Qwen3.8 Max was released on 2026-08-02.

Qwen3.8 Max is 19 months newer than Kimi-k1.5.

Kimi-k1.5

Jan 20, 2025

1.6 years ago

Qwen3.8 Max

Aug 2, 2026

1 months ago

1.5yr newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Kimi-k1.5 and Qwen3.8 Max side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Kimi-k1.5
✓ Preferred
Qwen3.8 Max
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Kimi-k1.5 vs Qwen3.8 Max.

Which is better, Kimi-k1.5 or Qwen3.8 Max?

Qwen3.8 Max leads the LLM Stats Score 51.9 to 17.2. Kimi-k1.5 is made by Moonshot AI and Qwen3.8 Max is made by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does Kimi-k1.5 compare to Qwen3.8 Max in benchmarks?

Kimi-k1.5 scores MATH-500: 96.2%, CLUEWSC: 91.4%, C-Eval: 88.3%, MMLU: 87.4%, IFEval: 87.2%. Qwen3.8 Max scores PaperBench: 93.0%, MRCR v2 (8-needle): 92.9%, GPQA: 92.6%, VideoMME w sub.: 90.4%, RealWorldQA: 88.0%.

What are the context window sizes for Kimi-k1.5 and Qwen3.8 Max?

Kimi-k1.5 supports an unknown number of tokens and Qwen3.8 Max supports 256K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Kimi-k1.5 and Qwen3.8 Max?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (17.2 vs 51.9), licensing (Proprietary vs Qwen3.8-Max License). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Kimi-k1.5 and Qwen3.8 Max?

Kimi-k1.5 is developed by Moonshot AI and Qwen3.8 Max is developed by Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team.

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