Kimi K2.8 Preview vs Kimi K3
Comparing Kimi K2.8 Preview and Kimi K3 across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.
Moonshot AI · Moonshot AI · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Kimi K2.8 Preview and Kimi K3 trade strengths across price, capabilities, and technical limits. The better choice depends on the workload.
Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Kimi K2.8 Preview
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2026
Choose Kimi K3
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Individual benchmarks
0 reported for Kimi K2.8 Preview · 31 for Kimi K3
Kimi K2.8 Preview and Kimi K3don'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
Both models have the same input context window of 1,048,576 tokens. Only Kimi K3 specifies output context (1,048,576 tokens).
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Both Kimi K2.8 Preview and Kimi K3 support multimodal inputs.
They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.
Kimi K2.8 Preview
Kimi K3
License
Usage and distribution terms
Kimi K2.8 Preview is licensed under a proprietary license, while Kimi K3 uses Kimi K3 License.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Proprietary
Closed source
Kimi K3 License
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Kimi K2.8 Preview was released on 2026-09-11, while Kimi K3 was released on 2026-07-16.
Kimi K2.8 Preview is 2 months newer than Kimi K3.
Sep 11, 2026
4 days ago
1mo newerJul 16, 2026
2 months ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
Kimi K2.8 Preview is available from Moonshot AI. Kimi K3 is available from DeepInfra, Fireworks, Moonshot AI, Novita, Together.
Kimi K2.8 Preview
Kimi K3
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Kimi K2.8 Preview and Kimi K3 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Kimi K2.8 Preview vs Kimi K3.