Kimi K2 Instruct vs Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
Wins 3 of 5 areas
Reasoning · Long documents · Following instructions
Wins 1 of 5 areas
Coding
Kimi K2 Instruct is the stronger all-rounder.Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct is better at coding.
Scores updated · 20 tests both models report · How we compare
Where each one wins
Tests won in each of the five areas where both have results. Each piece is one test, so a longer bar means more evidence; grey means the two scored within a point of each other.
- ReasoningHard problems that need careful thinking20Kimi K2 Instruct2 of 3 tests · 1 tie
- Long documentsFinding answers in very long texts10Kimi K2 Instruct1 of 1 test
- Following instructionsDoing exactly what it is asked10Kimi K2 Instruct1 of 1 test
- CodingWriting and fixing software14Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct4 of 5 tests
- FactsGetting facts right instead of making them up11Even1 each
Long documents and following instructions rest on a single test each.
What it costs
Prices per million tokens, roughly 750,000 words. The bars show the cost of a million tokens read plus a million written.
Kimi K2 Instruct costs 66% less for the same work.
The biggest differences
The three tests each model wins by the widest margin. Scores are out of 100.
Where Kimi K2 Instruct pulls ahead
- Graduate-level biology, physics and chemistry questionsGPQA Diamond+14.9points ahead
- Answers hard knowledge questions correctlyAA-Omniscience · Accuracy+9.7points ahead
- Reasons across sets of long documentsAA-LCR+7.3points ahead
Where Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct pulls ahead
- Avoids making up answers it doesn't knowAA-Omniscience · Non-hallucination+24.8points ahead
- Long, multi-file coding tasks in real codebasesSWE-bench Pro+11points ahead
- Fixes real GitHub issues in many programming languagesSWE-bench Multilingual+7.4points ahead
Every test, side by side
All 20 tests both models report. The winning score is in its model's colour; marks a score checked independently.
CodingQwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct
- SWE-bench ProQwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct by 1127.738.7+11
- SWE-bench MultilingualQwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct by 7.447.354.7+7.4
- SciCodeQwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct by 5.230.735.9+5.2
- Terminal-Bench HardKimi K2 Instruct by 4.623.518.9+4.6
- SWE-bench VerifiedQwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct by 3.865.869.6+3.8
ReasoningKimi K2 Instruct
- GPQA DiamondKimi K2 Instruct by 14.976.761.8+14.9
- Humanity's Last ExamKimi K2 Instruct by 1.96.44.5+1.9
- CritPttie00tie
FactsEven
- AA-Omniscience · Non-hallucinationQwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct by 24.830.355.1+24.8
- AA-Omniscience · AccuracyKimi K2 Instruct by 9.725.415.7+9.7
Following instructionsKimi K2 Instruct
- IFBenchKimi K2 Instruct by 1.241.740.5+1.2
Other results8 tests, not counted
Tests outside the eight areas. They are not counted above: several are summary scores built from other tests, or the same test under another name.
- τ²-Bench Telecom (AA run)Kimi K2 Instruct by 29.873.443.6+29.8
- AA Agentic IndexKimi K2 Instruct by 19.437.718.3+19.4
- Multi-SWE-BenchKimi K2 Instruct by 7.733.525.8+7.7
- AA-OmniscienceQwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct by 4.4-26.6-22.2+4.4
- AA IntelligenceKimi K2 Instruct by 3.415.311.9+3.4
- SWE-Dev (Tools-allowed)Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct by 2.861.964.7+2.8
- Aider-PolyglotQwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct by 1.86061.8+1.8
- Artificial Analysis Coding IndexKimi K2 Instruct by 1.325.924.6+1.3
Questions people ask
Which is better, Kimi K2 Instruct or Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct?
Kimi K2 Instruct wins three of the five areas where both have results: reasoning, long documents and following instructions. Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct wins coding. They are level on facts.
Which is better for coding?
Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct. It wins 4 of the 5 coding tests both models report; Kimi K2 Instruct wins 1.
Which is cheaper?
Kimi K2 Instruct costs $0.60 per million input tokens and $2.50 per million output tokens; Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B Instruct costs $1.50 and $7.50. That makes Kimi K2 Instruct about 66% cheaper for the same work.
How do you compare the two?
We use the 20 benchmark tests both models have published scores on. The verdict counts the 12 tests in the eight capability areas, and a gap under one point (ten on rating-style scales) counts as a tie. The other 8 are listed but not counted, because several are summary scores or repeat a test. Each score is the one shown on the model's own page.