Kimi K1.5 Chat vs Qwen3: which model should you choose?
We compared Kimi K1.5 Chat and Qwen3 on price, context window and 12 benchmarks. Qwen3 has the stronger average benchmark score; Qwen3 is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis.
Kimi K1.5 Chat
Kimi K1.5 Chat is a multimodal model from Moonshot AI. It offers a 128,000-token context window, costs $5.11 per million input tokens and $26.59 per million output tokens, and averages 80.2 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $5.11 / 1M
- Output
- $26.59 / 1M
- Context
- 128,000
- Avg score
- 80.2
- Open weights
- Yes
Qwen3
Qwen3 is a multimodal model from Alibaba Cloud. It offers a 128,000-token context window, costs $5.04 per million input tokens and $22.52 per million output tokens, and averages 80.3 across the index's benchmark suite.
- Input
- $5.04 / 1M
- Output
- $22.52 / 1M
- Context
- 128,000
- Avg score
- 80.3
- Open weights
- Yes
Specification comparison
| Spec | Kimi K1.5 Chat | Qwen3 | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input price / 1M | $5.11 | $5.04 | B |
| Output price / 1M | $26.59 | $22.52 | B |
| Context window | 128,000 | 128,000 | Tie |
| Max output | 32,768 | 8,192 | A |
| Average score | 80.2 | 80.3 | B |
| Arena Elo | 1422.6 | 1420.9 | A |
| Open weights | Yes | Yes | Tie |
Benchmark comparison
Kimi K1.5 Chat wins 6, Qwen3 wins 6, and 0 benchmarks are tied. The table shows the modelled score for each model and the gap.
| Benchmark | Kimi K1.5 Chat | Qwen3 | Gap | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU-Pro | 81.3 | 81.2 | 0.1 | Kimi K1.5 Chat |
| GPQA Diamond | 78.1 | 77.7 | 0.4 | Kimi K1.5 Chat |
| SWE-bench Verified | 69.9 | 71.6 | 1.7 | Qwen3 |
| HumanEval | 84.3 | 87.0 | 2.7 | Qwen3 |
| MATH-500 | 81.7 | 86.5 | 4.8 | Qwen3 |
| AIME 2025 | 81.4 | 74.5 | 6.9 | Kimi K1.5 Chat |
| LiveCodeBench | 75.7 | 73.8 | 1.9 | Kimi K1.5 Chat |
| IFEval | 88.2 | 85.6 | 2.6 | Kimi K1.5 Chat |
| TruthfulQA | 80.3 | 80.4 | 0.1 | Qwen3 |
| HellaSwag | 87.2 | 88.1 | 0.9 | Qwen3 |
| MMMU | 73.6 | 76.7 | 3.1 | Qwen3 |
| Arena Elo | 1422.6 | 1420.9 | 1.7 | Kimi K1.5 Chat |
Price analysis
On a blended 3:1 input-to-output basis, Kimi K1.5 Chat costs about $10.48 per million tokens and Qwen3 costs about $9.41. Qwen3 is roughly 10% cheaper than Kimi K1.5 Chat. At high volume, that gap compounds quickly, so price should carry real weight unless the quality difference is decisive.
Both models list a 128,000-token context window. That is enough for long documents, large codebases and multi-step agent traces.
Verdict
Across 12 shared benchmarks, Kimi K1.5 Chat wins 6, Qwen3 wins 6, and 0 are tied. On the index average, Qwen3 leads Kimi K1.5 Chat by 0.1 points (80.3 versus 80.2).
The price picture favours Qwen3. The context picture is effectively a tie. Those two dimensions often matter more than a few benchmark points once a model is good enough for the task.
If you need a single default, start with Qwen3 for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.
Choose Kimi K1.5 Chat if
- You need the larger 32,768-token output limit.
Choose Qwen3 if
- You want the higher average benchmark score in this index.
- Unit cost matters and you want the cheaper blended price.
FAQ
Is Kimi K1.5 Chat better than Qwen3?
On the index average, Qwen3 leads Kimi K1.5 Chat by 0.1 points (80.3 versus 80.2). The better choice depends on price, context and your task. Kimi K1.5 Chat wins 6 benchmarks, Qwen3 wins 6.
Which is cheaper, Kimi K1.5 Chat or Qwen3?
Qwen3 is cheaper on a blended 3:1 basis at about $9.41 per million tokens, versus $10.48 for Kimi K1.5 Chat.
Which has the larger context window?
Both models list a 128,000-token context window.
Are these models open weights?
Kimi K1.5 Chat is open weights; Qwen3 is open weights.
Which should I choose for production?
If you need a single default, start with Qwen3 for quality-sensitive work, and check whether its price holds at your expected volume before committing.