Kimi K3 vs Qwen3.8-27B
Kimi K3 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Moonshot AI · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Kimi K3 outperforms in 8 benchmarks (BabyVision, CharXiv-R, DeepSWE 1.1, GPQA, Humanity's Last Exam, Job Bench, MathVision, Terminal-Bench 2.1), while Qwen3.8-27B is better at 0 benchmarks. Kimi K3 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Kimi K3
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 8 of 8 shared benchmarks
Choose Qwen3.8-27B
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Aug 2026
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Kimi K3 outperforms in 8 benchmarks (BabyVision, CharXiv-R, DeepSWE 1.1, GPQA, Humanity's Last Exam, Job Bench, MathVision, Terminal-Bench 2.1), while Qwen3.8-27B is better at 0 benchmarks.
Kimi K3 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Playground indexes and blind preference scores
Model Size
Parameter count comparison
Kimi K3 has 2772.2B more parameters than Qwen3.8-27B, making it 9978.7% larger.
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Only Kimi K3 specifies input context (1,048,576 tokens). Only Kimi K3 specifies output context (1,048,576 tokens).
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Both Kimi K3 and Qwen3.8-27B support multimodal inputs.
They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.
Kimi K3
Qwen3.8-27B
License
Usage and distribution terms
Kimi K3 is licensed under Kimi K3 License, while Qwen3.8-27B uses Apache 2.0.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Kimi K3 License
Open weights
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Kimi K3 was released on 2026-07-16, while Qwen3.8-27B was released on 2026-08-14.
Qwen3.8-27B is 1 month newer than Kimi K3.
Jul 16, 2026
1 months ago
Aug 14, 2026
1 weeks ago
4w newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Kimi K3 and Qwen3.8-27B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Kimi K3 vs Qwen3.8-27B.