The AI arena is free today

Open Superagent

Kimi K2.8 Preview vs MiniMax M3

Comparing Kimi K2.8 Preview and MiniMax M3 across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.

Moonshot AI · MiniMax · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Kimi K2.8 Preview and MiniMax M3 trade strengths across price, capabilities, and technical limits. The better choice depends on the workload.

Kimi K2.8 Preview also accepts a larger context window (1,048,576 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.

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

Choose Kimi K2.8 Preview

  • you process long inputs — it offers a 1,048,576 token context window
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2026

Choose MiniMax M3

  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Kimi K2.8 Preview
Moonshot AI
MiniMax M3
MiniMax
Benchmark wins
—
—
Input price
— / M
$0.28 / M
Output price
— / M
$1.10 / M
Context window
1,048,576
524,288

Individual benchmarks

0 reported for Kimi K2.8 Preview · 35 for MiniMax M3

No common benchmarks found

Kimi K2.8 Preview and MiniMax M3don'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

Kimi K2.8 Preview accepts 1,048,576 input tokens compared to MiniMax M3's 524,288 tokens. Only MiniMax M3 specifies output context (524,288 tokens).

Moonshot AI
Kimi K2.8 Preview
Input1,048,576 tokens
Output- tokens
MiniMax
MiniMax M3
Input524,288 tokens
Output524,288 tokens
Mon Sep 14 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Both Kimi K2.8 Preview and MiniMax M3 support multimodal inputs.

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

Kimi K2.8 Preview

Text
Images
Audio
Video

MiniMax M3

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Kimi K2.8 Preview is licensed under a proprietary license, while MiniMax M3 uses MIT.

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

Kimi K2.8 Preview

Proprietary

Closed source

MiniMax M3

MIT

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Kimi K2.8 Preview was released on 2026-09-11, while MiniMax M3 was released on 2026-06-01.

Kimi K2.8 Preview is 3 months newer than MiniMax M3.

Kimi K2.8 Preview

Sep 11, 2026

3 days ago

3mo newer
MiniMax M3

Jun 1, 2026

3 months ago

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

Provider Availability

Kimi K2.8 Preview is available from Moonshot AI. MiniMax M3 is available from DeepInfra, Fireworks, MiniMax, Novita, Together.

Kimi K2.8 Preview

moonshot logo
Unknown Organization

MiniMax M3

deepinfra logo
Deepinfra
Input Price:Input: $0.28/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.10/1M
fireworks logo
Fireworks
Input Price:Input: $0.30/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.20/1M
minimax logo
MiniMax
Input Price:Input: $0.30/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.20/1M
novita logo
Novita
Input Price:Input: $0.30/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.20/1M
together logo
Together
Input Price:Input: $0.30/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.20/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Kimi K2.8 Preview and MiniMax M3 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Kimi K2.8 Preview
✓ Preferred
MiniMax M3
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Kimi K2.8 Preview vs MiniMax M3.

Which is better, Kimi K2.8 Preview or MiniMax M3?

Kimi K2.8 Preview (Moonshot AI) and MiniMax M3 (MiniMax) each have strengths in different areas. Compare their benchmark scores, pricing, context windows, and capabilities above to determine which fits your needs.

How does Kimi K2.8 Preview compare to MiniMax M3 in benchmarks?

MiniMax M3 scores OmniDocBench 1.5: 91.6%, SpreadSheetBench-v1: 89.3%, USAMO 2026: 85.7%, Video-MME: 85.4%, VideoMMMU: 84.6%.

What are the context window sizes for Kimi K2.8 Preview and MiniMax M3?

Kimi K2.8 Preview supports 1.0M tokens and MiniMax M3 supports 524K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Kimi K2.8 Preview and MiniMax M3?

Key differences include context window (1.0M vs 524K), licensing (Proprietary vs MIT). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Kimi K2.8 Preview and MiniMax M3?

Kimi K2.8 Preview is developed by Moonshot AI and MiniMax M3 is developed by MiniMax.

Related comparisons