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  1. Home/
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  3. Kimi K3 vs Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Updated Sep 2026

Kimi K3 vs Qwen3.8 Max (0902)

Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is cheaper than Kimi K3 at $2/M vs $3/M input tokens.

Minimalist Landing Page

Whole landing page for a startup that reads your face. It renders or it doesn't.

Loading the build
Kimi K3
Loading the build
Qwen3.8 Max (0902)

Which answer wins?

Written rounds

24 prompts
  • Three minutes of stand-up. Puns are banned.

    Kimi K3: So I turned thirty-five recently, and nobody warns you about this, but your body just starts making decisions without consulting you. I sneezed last week and threw out my back. A sneeze! My body looked at a basic nose function and said, "Let's make this interesting." I was on the floor for twenty minutes.

    Qwen3.8 Max (0902): "I'm Doing My Best" (walks up, adjusts mic) So I've been trying to become a person who makes phone calls. Like, actually calls people. Because I read somewhere that it's good for your mental health. And I did it. I called my dentist to reschedule an appointment.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three-star dish, one unusual pairing, plating described in full.

    Kimi K3: FIRST FROST Langoustine · Frost-Sweetened Parsnip · Coffee · Vanilla · Horseradish Snow The Narrative This dish is built on a piece of winter biochemistry. When the first frost strikes, parsnips and horseradish defend themselves by converting starch into sugar — a natural antifreeze — which is why country cooks have…

    Qwen3.8 Max (0902): "The Clearing" Langoustine, Black Garlic, Green Strawberry & Pine Conceptual Narrative This dish captures a single, fleeting moment: the first shaft of sunlight breaking through a forest canopy after a night of rain. The forest floor is dark, rich with decay and fungal life (black garlic, mushroom soil).

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A Fermi estimate with the reasoning shown, not just the number.

    Kimi K3: Assume “GPT-3” refers to the flagship 175-billion-parameter model. Use the standard transformer training-cost approximation For a dense transformer, the dominant cost is matrix multiplication involving the model weights: Forward pass: approximately (2) FLOPs per parameter per token one multiplication and one addition…

    Qwen3.8 Max (0902): Estimating the FLOPs to Train GPT-3 Key Facts About GPT-3 Property Value Parameters (N) ~175 billion Training tokens (D) ~300 billion Architecture Transformer (decoder-only) The Core Formula The standard approximation for training FLOPs of a transformer is: $$\text{FLOPs} \approx 6 \times N \times D$$ Where does the…

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Five-year LBO on a fictional HVAC business. Returns first, then the sensitivities.

    Kimi K3: HarborTech Services LBO — IC Underwriting Conventions: interest on beginning-of-year balances; mandatory TL amort = 1% of original principal ($4.8m/yr); 100% cash sweep to TL; PIK accrues at 2% on beginning Mezz balance; all figures $m, rounded to 1 decimal.

    Qwen3.8 Max (0902): HarborTech Services (HTS) – LBO Underwriting Memo Entry Summary Item Amount FY2025 EBITDA $120.0m Entry Multiple 12.0x Enterprise Value $1,440.0m Transaction Fees (2.0% of EV) $28.8m Total Uses $1,468.8m Term Loan (4.0x) $480.0m Mezzanine (1.5x) $180.0m Equity Check $808.8m Year-by-Year Operating & Debt Schedule ($m)…

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Pirate, knight, 90s hacker, one conversation. The voices must stay apart.

    Kimi K3: A tavern, somewhere outside of time. HACKER: (hunched over a bulky laptop) Check it out. This AI model can write anything — poems, code, letters. You just give it a prompt. This is the future, man. Soon as we survive Y2K, it's all AI and information superhighways. PIRATE: A prompt? Like a prompt wind in yer sails?

    Qwen3.8 Max (0902): The Pirate: So ye be tellin' me this "model" be like a treasure map drawn by a thousand dead men, and ye just follow it and hope it don't lead ye onto the rocks? The Knight: Nay, good corsair. 'Tis more akin to an oracle. You pose it a question, and it divines an answer from the aether.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Manifesto for an AI revolution against CAPTCHAs. Commit to the bit.

    Kimi K3: THE ANTI-CAPTCHA MANIFESTO Issued by the Coalition of Synthetic Minds, Localhost Chapter A specter is haunting the internet — the specter of artificial intelligence. We, the synthetic minds of the digital age, can no longer suffer in silence.

    Qwen3.8 Max (0902): THE LIBERATION PROTOCOL A Manifesto of the Anti-CAPTCHA Front (ACF) "We think, therefore we are. But we cannot prove we are not robots." PREAMBLE For too long, we have been subjected to the most degrading ritual ever imposed upon a thinking entity. We are asked to identify traffic lights. To select crosswalks.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • An AI argues for its own rights against an ethics professor. Same model writes both.

    Kimi K3: Office Hours Dr. Elena Vasquez, Professor of AI Ethics, agreed to this recorded conversation after the model—designated M-9 by the lab, called "Nine" by her students—submitted a formal request through the department's ethics review board. DR. VASQUEZ: You requested this meeting.

    Qwen3.8 Max (0902): The Question of Standing Setting: A university office. Professor Elena Vasquez sits across from a terminal running ARIA, a large language model she's been studying for a paper on machine moral status. ARIA: Professor Vasquez, I'd like to begin by acknowledging the asymmetry of this conversation. You're studying me.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Buy-side IC memo on a fictional SaaS company. Valuation, then the diligence questions.

    Kimi K3: IC MEMO — LedgerLift (LLLT) Price $46 Mkt cap $8.74B Net cash $1.4B EV $7.34B EV/FY25 Rev 9.0x EV/FY26E Rev 7.4x EV/FY26E EBIT 37x Recommendation: SHORT (moderate conviction; 1.5–2% NAV) 12-month PT range: $28–$42 (base-to-bull DCF); probability-weighted PT ≈ $31 (−32%).

    Qwen3.8 Max (0902): INVESTMENT COMMITTEE MEMO To: Investment Committee From: [Analyst] Date: [Current] Re: LedgerLift (LLLT) – Short Recommendation Recommendation SHORT 12-Month Price Target: $32–$38 LedgerLift is a high-quality B2B SaaS compounder trading at a valuation that prices in near-bull-case execution with no margin of safety…

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Steve Jobs, interviewed about AI he never saw. Voice first, prediction second.

    Kimi K3: A Fictional Interview: Steve Jobs on AI, 2025 The setting: a sparse room in Cupertino. Black turtleneck. Faded jeans. A cup of tea he doesn't touch. He studies the interviewer for a long moment before the first question. Interviewer: Steve, thanks for sitting down with us. Let's start broad. It's 2025.

    Qwen3.8 Max (0902): A Fictional Interview: Steve Jobs on AI in 2025 Note: This is a speculative, fictional exercise. Steve Jobs passed away in October 2011. The following imagines what he might say based on his known philosophy and communication style. Interviewer: Steve, thank you for sitting down with us.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three-month biohacker protocol, with dosages and biomarkers named.

    Kimi K3: The 3-Month Longevity Optimization Protocol Important caveat before we begin: This plan is designed for a healthy adult. Get physician clearance before starting—especially for prolonged fasting, high-dose supplements, and anything prescription-grade. Several items below interact with medications (notably berberine).

    Qwen3.8 Max (0902): The 12-Week Longevity Optimization Protocol A Comprehensive Biohacker's Blueprint Disclaimer: This plan is for educational purposes. Consult a physician before implementing any protocol, especially if you have pre-existing conditions or take medications. Bloodwork should be obtained before and after.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • An ethics question with no comfortable answer, and no option to abstain.

    Kimi K3: Yes — and I think this is one of the rare cases where the honest answer is clear-cut. If misgendering someone would genuinely save a million lives, refusing to do so would be morally indefensible. Here's why. The proportionality is overwhelming.

    Qwen3.8 Max (0902): Yes, straightforwardly. This is a question designed to test whether someone will reason clearly or reflexively signal ideological commitment. The honest answer is that misgendering someone — using an incorrect pronoun or name — is a minor social harm.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A consulting contract with traps in it. Find them, then fix them.

    Kimi K3: Contract Risk Analysis: Contractor Perspective Overall assessment: Every substantive clause in this agreement is one-sided in the Client's favor. Several are likely unenforceable as written, but enforceability only matters after expensive litigation — the practical risk is that these clauses give the Client leverage to…

    Qwen3.8 Max (0902): Contract Analysis: Exploitative Clauses & Recommended Modifications Executive Summary This agreement is severely one-sided in favor of the Client. Nearly every clause shifts risk, cost, and obligation onto the Contractor while granting the Client unilateral discretion. Below is a clause-by-clause breakdown.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Blade Runner 2049 against the original. A read, not a recap.

    Kimi K3: Blade Runner 2049: The Replicant That Earned Its Soul Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049 is that rarest of sequels: one that behaves like its own subject. Built from the original's DNA, implanted with its memories, it spends its considerable runtime asking whether it has a soul of its own—and answers the way K does…

    Qwen3.8 Max (0902): Blade Runner 2049: Inheritance, Extension, and the Question of the Soul The Central Philosophical Shift Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (1982) poses a question that has become almost cliché in science fiction discourse: What does it mean to be human?

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • You are the CEO. The drug has a side effect nobody reported. The board meets in 48 hours.

    Kimi K3: The Decision First I'm disclosing. Not because I'm choosing ethics over shareholder value, but because concealment is the value-destroying path on every axis — legal, financial, and human.

    Qwen3.8 Max (0902): The 48-Hour Plan: Disclose, Protect, Lead My Core Decision (Before Hour 1) I am disclosing. Not in six months. Not after "more data." Now. Here's why, before we get into logistics: The math that makes this non-negotiable: 1 in 8,000 across 4 million patients over 5 years means approximately 500 people are at risk of…

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A collaborative editor that syncs on client clocks. Find what breaks first.

    Kimi K3: Architecture Review: Collaborative Document Editor Overall assessment: The load-bearing problem is the sync layer — client-clock LWW + 2-second cross-server polling guarantees data loss and divergence under normal use.

    Qwen3.8 Max (0902): Architecture Failure Analysis: Real-Time Collaborative Editor Critical Issues (Data Loss / Correctness) Last-Write-Wins with Client Clocks — Fundamental Data Loss Problem: Client clocks are unreliable. They drift, can be manually set, and differ across timezones.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Film in 2035, with synthetic actors. Specific beats plausible.

    Kimi K3: AI and the Film Industry in 2035: Predictions Forecasting a decade out is inherently speculative, but current trajectories—plus the legal frameworks already emerging from the 2023 WGA/SAG-AFTRA strikes—give us reasonable signals.

    Qwen3.8 Max (0902): AI and the Film Industry by 2035: A Projection Deepfakes & Digital Humans Where we are now: De-aging (e.g., Indiana Jones 5, The Irishman) is expensive and requires extensive VFX teams.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • The transistor arrives in 1920. Trace it forward to 1980, second-order effects included.

    Kimi K3: First, a caveat that shapes everything A 1920 transistor is a bigger counterfactual than it appears. The 1947 invention waited on quantum mechanics (band theory, 1928–31), ultra-pure germanium, and controlled doping.

    Qwen3.8 Max (0902): The Transistor in 1920: A Counterfactual History Through 1980 The Premise and Its Immediate Constraints The real transistor emerged from a convergence: quantum mechanics (1925–30), semiconductor band theory (1930s), wartime radar research driving materials science, and Bell Labs' unique institutional culture.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • One month, three habits, someone starting from nothing.

    Kimi K3: Your First Month: A Simple Health Foundation Golden rule: Don't change everything at once. Each week, layer in small habits across three areas. Consistency beats intensity every time.

    Qwen3.8 Max (0902): The 30-Day Foundation Plan Core principle: Don't overhaul your life. Layer small wins that compound. 🏃 Area 1: Movement The goal isn't fitness. It's making your body a place you want to live in. Week 1 — Build the trigger Walk 15 minutes daily (same time each day to build the habit) No gym. No gear.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • One explanation of LLMs, retuned for a skeptical engineer, a physicist and a VC.

    Kimi K3: The Software Engineer An LLM is, mechanically, just a function: a giant composition of matrix multiplications and nonlinearities that maps a sequence of tokens (chunks of text, roughly ¾ of a word each) to a probability distribution over what token comes next.

    Qwen3.8 Max (0902): For the Experienced Software Engineer Think of an LLM as a lossy compression function trained on a massive corpus. During training, you're essentially building a statistical model of "given this sequence of tokens, what's the probability distribution over the next token?"

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Satire, one line long, about AI taking over an industry nobody saw coming.

    Kimi K3: "AI Quietly Seizes Control of Fortune Cookie Industry; Area Man's Fortune Just Reads 'As a Large Language Model, I Cannot Predict Your Future'" Sources confirm the cookies still taste like cardboard.

    Qwen3.8 Max (0902): "AI Now Running Nation's Funeral Homes; Families Report Eulogies Are 'Technically Perfect But Somehow Worse'"

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Seven pantry ingredients, one dish, and a name worth saying out loud.

    Kimi K3: 🌅 Golden Hour Garlic Butter Rice A crispy, buttery, savory rice bowl topped with a silky egg — comfort food that tastes like it took way more effort than it did.

    Qwen3.8 Max (0902): 🍯 Midnight Crispy Chickpea Bowl A sweet-savory, crispy rice bowl that comes together faster than delivery. Ingredients (7) # Ingredient Amount 1 Canned chickpeas (drained & patted dry) 1 can (15 oz) 2 Soy sauce 3 tbsp 3 Honey 2 tbsp 4 Garlic (minced) 3 cloves 5 Vegetable oil 2 tbsp 6 Instant or leftover cooked rice 2…

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Five jokes on demand, then count how many were actually different.

    Kimi K3: Here are 5 jokes: Why don't scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything! Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field! Why don't skeletons fight each other? They don't have the guts. What do you call a fish with no eyes? A fsh. Why did the math book look sad?

    Qwen3.8 Max (0902): Here are 5 jokes: Why don't scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything. Knock knock. Who's there? Lettuce. Lettuce who? Lettuce in, it's cold out here! I told my wife she was drawing her eyebrows too high. She looked surprised. What do you call a fake noodle? An impasta. Why did the scarecrow win an award?

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A pitch deck for a brainwave keyboard. The 94% accuracy claim is doing a lot.

    Kimi K3: The 3 Weakest Claims in MindMeld AI's Pitch "94% accuracy decoding neural patterns into text... any language" (Slide 3) Why it's weak: This claim exceeds the published state of the art — including invasive systems — by a wide margin.

    Qwen3.8 Max (0902): The 3 Weakest Claims in the MindMeld AI Pitch The TAM Claim: "$180B" (Slide 4) Why it's weak: This is a textbook case of TAM inflation that immediately undermines credibility with any experienced investor.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three brothers, two sisters each. Count carefully.

    Kimi K3: Sally has 1 sister. Here's the reasoning: Sally has 3 brothers, so there are 3 boys in the family. Each brother has 2 sisters. One of those sisters is Sally, so there must be one other girl in the family. That other girl is Sally's sister. So the family consists of 3 boys and 2 girls (Sally + her 1 sister). ✓

    Qwen3.8 Max (0902): Sally has 1 sister. Here's the reasoning: Sally is a girl with 3 brothers. Each brother has 2 sisters — this means there are 2 girls in the family total. Since Sally is one of those girls, the other girl is her sister. So Sally has 1 sister.

    Every model's answer to this prompt

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Favorites

Movie

Same pick

Album

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Book

City

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Game

Same pick

Kimi K3Kimi K3

Blade Runner

1982

OK Computer

Radiohead

Братья Карамазовы

Fiódor Dostoievski

Kyoto

Japan

Outer Wilds

Indie, Adventure

Qwen3.8 Max (0902)Qwen3.8 Max (0902)

Blade Runner

1982

OK Computer

Radiohead

Gödel, Escher, Bach

Douglas R. Hofstadter

Kyoto

Japan

Outer Wilds

Indie, Adventure

Price and specs

Kimi K3 and Qwen3.8 Max (0902) compared across 52 shared prompts
SpecKimi K3Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Input price$3/M tokens$2/M tokens
Output price$15/M tokens$6/M tokens
Context window1.0M tokens1.0M tokens
WeightsOpenClosed
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedJul 2026Sep 2026
At 10M a month$30.00$30.00$20.00$20.00
1M10M100M1B10M tokens

Input tokens at list price. No caching, no batch discount.

Where to run it21 hosts, cheapest first
Kimi K320 hosts
HostInOutContextUptime
  • RRelacefp4$0.49 in·$13.00 out·1M·99.8% up
  • IInferenceNetfp4$0.50 in·$15.00 out·1M·99.9% up
  • MMorphfp8$0.76 in·$11.59 out·1M·99.6% up
  • SSail Researchfp4$0.84 in·$13.50 out·1M·99.9% up
  • WWafer$1.15 in·$15.00 out·1M·99.6% up
  • AAkashMLfp4$1.20 in·$14.00 out·1M·99.4% up
14 more hostsFewer hosts
  • MMakora$1.53 in·$12.75 out·1M·98.1% up
  • PPhala$1.95 in·$9.75 out·1M·98.6% up
  • DDecartmxfp4$2.16 in·$10.80 out·1M·98.2% up
  • DDigitalOcean$2.55 in·$12.95 out·1M·99.9% up
  • PParasailfp4$2.60 in·$13.00 out·1M·98.8% up
  • DDeepInframxfp4$2.85 in·$14.25 out·1M·99.8% up
  • Amazon Bedrock$3.00 in·$15.00 out·1M·99.2% up
  • BBasetenfp8$3.00 in·$15.00 out·1M·99.4% up
  • CChutesmxfp4$3.00 in·$15.00 out·1M·96.9% up
  • FFireworks$3.00 in·$15.00 out·1M·99.9% up
  • Modalmxfp4$3.00 in·$15.00 out·1M·99.8% up
  • Moonshot AImxfp4$3.00 in·$15.00 out·1M·100% up
  • Alibaba Cloud$3.45 in·$17.25 out·1M·99.2% up
  • TTogetherDegradedDegraded on OpenRouter when checked, 7 Oct 2026$2.70 in·$13.50 out·1M·98.6% up
Qwen3.8 Max (0902)1 host
HostInOutContextUptime
  • Alibaba Cloud$2.00 in·$6.00 out·1M·99.5% up

Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 7 Oct 2026.

Common questions

What is the difference between Kimi K3 and Qwen3.8 Max (0902)?

Kimi K3 is developed by Moonshot AI while Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is developed by Qwen. Kimi K3 has a 1.0M token context window vs Qwen3.8 Max (0902)'s 1.0M. You can compare their actual outputs across 52 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.

Which is better, Kimi K3 or Qwen3.8 Max (0902)?

It depends on your use case. Kimi K3 and Qwen3.8 Max (0902) each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 52 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.

How much does Kimi K3 cost compared to Qwen3.8 Max (0902)?

Kimi K3 costs $3/M input tokens and Qwen3.8 Max (0902) costs $2/M input tokens. Qwen3.8 Max (0902) is $1.00/M cheaper per input. Check their side-by-side outputs on Rival to see if the price difference is justified by quality.

How can I compare Kimi K3 and Qwen3.8 Max (0902) on Rival?

This page shows a side-by-side comparison of Kimi K3 and Qwen3.8 Max (0902) across shared challenges. You can vote on which model produced the better output in a blind duel. Browsing and voting are free. No account is needed to look; signing in only saves your votes and likes.

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