The AI arena is free today

Open Superagent

Kimi K2.8 Preview vs MiniMax M3.1 Flash

Comparing Kimi K2.8 Preview and MiniMax M3.1 Flash across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.

Moonshot AI · MiniMax · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Kimi K2.8 Preview and MiniMax M3.1 Flash 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

Choose MiniMax M3.1 Flash

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Oct 2026

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Kimi K2.8 Preview
Moonshot AI
MiniMax M3.1 Flash
MiniMax
Benchmark wins
—
—
Input price
— / M
$0.15 / M
Output price
— / M
$0.60 / M
Context window
1,048,576
1,000,000

Individual benchmarks

0 reported for Kimi K2.8 Preview · 15 for MiniMax M3.1 Flash

No common benchmarks found

Kimi K2.8 Preview and MiniMax M3.1 Flashdon'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 M3.1 Flash's 1,000,000 tokens. Only MiniMax M3.1 Flash specifies output context (524,288 tokens).

Moonshot AI
Kimi K2.8 Preview
Input1,048,576 tokens
Output- tokens
MiniMax
MiniMax M3.1 Flash
Input1,000,000 tokens
Output524,288 tokens
Thu Oct 22 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Both Kimi K2.8 Preview and MiniMax M3.1 Flash 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 M3.1 Flash

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Both models are licensed under proprietary licenses.

Both models have usage restrictions defined by their respective organizations.

Kimi K2.8 Preview

Proprietary

Closed source

MiniMax M3.1 Flash

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Kimi K2.8 Preview was released on 2026-09-11, while MiniMax M3.1 Flash was released on 2026-10-19.

MiniMax M3.1 Flash is 1 month newer than Kimi K2.8 Preview.

Kimi K2.8 Preview

Sep 11, 2026

1 months ago

MiniMax M3.1 Flash

Oct 19, 2026

0 days ago

1mo 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

Provider Availability

Kimi K2.8 Preview is available from Moonshot AI. MiniMax M3.1 Flash is available from MiniMax.

Kimi K2.8 Preview

moonshot logo
Unknown Organization

MiniMax M3.1 Flash

minimax logo
MiniMax
Input Price:Input: $0.15/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.60/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Kimi K2.8 Preview and MiniMax M3.1 Flash side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Kimi K2.8 Preview
✓ Preferred
MiniMax M3.1 Flash
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Kimi K2.8 Preview vs MiniMax M3.1 Flash.

Which is better, Kimi K2.8 Preview or MiniMax M3.1 Flash?

Kimi K2.8 Preview (Moonshot AI) and MiniMax M3.1 Flash (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 M3.1 Flash in benchmarks?

MiniMax M3.1 Flash scores BabyVision: 91.0%, CharXiv-R: 82.5%, CyberGym: 82.2%, BankerToolBench: 76.2%, DeepSWE 1.1: 73.7%.

What are the context window sizes for Kimi K2.8 Preview and MiniMax M3.1 Flash?

Kimi K2.8 Preview supports 1.0M tokens and MiniMax M3.1 Flash supports 1.0M 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 M3.1 Flash?

Key differences include context window (1.0M vs 1.0M). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Kimi K2.8 Preview and MiniMax M3.1 Flash?

Kimi K2.8 Preview is developed by Moonshot AI and MiniMax M3.1 Flash is developed by MiniMax.

Related comparisons