Kimi Linear 48B A3B Instruct vs Qwen: Qwen3.8 Max
Compare Kimi Linear 48B A3B Instruct by Moonshot AI against Qwen: Qwen3.8 Max by Qwen, context windows of 1.0M vs 1.0M, tested across 6 shared challenges.
Our Verdict
Kimi Linear 48B A3B Instruct
Qwen: Qwen3.8 Max
No community votes yet. On paper, these are closely matched - try both with your actual task to see which fits your workflow.
Kimi Linear 48B A3B Instruct is 10x cheaper per token — worth considering if cost matters.
Too close to call
API pricing
Cost per 1M tokens
Kimi Linear 48B A3B Instruct
Input
$0.30
6.7× cheaper
Output
$0.60
10× cheaper
Qwen: Qwen3.8 Max
Input
$2.00
Output
$6.00
Kimi Linear 48B A3B Instruct is cheaper on both — 6.7× input, 10× output
Writing DNA
Style Comparison
Similarity
37%
Qwen: Qwen3.8 Max uses 5.1x more headings
Kimi Linear 48B A3B Instruct
Qwen: Qwen3.8 Max
63%Vocabulary48%
15wSentence Length17w
0.19Hedging0.95
5.2Bold4.3
3.2Lists8.2
0.00Emoji0.00
0.38Headings1.92
0.05Transitions0.02
Based on 14 + 13 text responses
Research
What we learned reading every model
FAQ
