Compare/Kimi K2.6 (Non-reasoning) vs Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning)

Kimi K2.6 (Non-reasoning)vsQwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning)

Side-by-side comparison of pricing, 12 benchmarks, and generation speed.

Kimi

Kimi K2.6 (Non-reasoning)

Input
$0.95/M
Output
$4/M
Speed
93 tok/s
TTFT
1.12s
Alibaba

Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning)

Input
$0.6/M
Output
$3.6/M
Speed
52 tok/s
TTFT
1.90s

Winner by Category

Cheaper
Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning)
Faster (tok/s)
Kimi K2.6 (Non-reasoning)
Lower Latency
Kimi K2.6 (Non-reasoning)
Benchmarks (0-7)
Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning)

Pricing Comparison

MetricKimi K2.6 (Non-reasoning)Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning)
Input ($/M tokens)$0.95$0.6
Output ($/M tokens)$4$3.6
Cost for 1M input + 100K output tokens:
Kimi K2.6 (Non-reasoning)$1.35
Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning)$0.96

Speed Comparison

Output Speed (tokens/s) — higher is better
Kimi K2.6 (Non-reasoning)
93 tok/s
Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning)
52 tok/s
Time to First Token (seconds) — lower is better
Kimi K2.6 (Non-reasoning)
1.12s
Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning)
1.90s

Benchmark Comparison

Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks

Intelligence Index
42.945.0
Coding Index
38.441.3
Math Index
GPQA Diamond
78.8%89.3%
MMLU-Pro
LiveCodeBench
AIME 2025
MATH-500
Humanity's Last Exam
18.2%27.3%
SciCode
39.5%42.0%
IFBench
44.3%78.8%
TerminalBench
37.9%40.9%
Kimi K2.6 (Non-reasoning)0 wins
7 winsQwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning)

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is cheaper, Kimi K2.6 (Non-reasoning) or Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning)?

Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) is cheaper overall. Its blended price (3:1 input/output ratio) is $1.35/M tokens vs $1.71/M for Kimi K2.6 (Non-reasoning).

Which model performs better on benchmarks?

Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) wins 7 out of 12 benchmarks compared to 0 for Kimi K2.6 (Non-reasoning). See the detailed benchmark chart above for per-category results.

Which is faster for real-time applications?

Kimi K2.6 (Non-reasoning) generates tokens faster at 93 tok/s vs 52 tok/s. Kimi K2.6 (Non-reasoning) also has lower time-to-first-token (1.12s vs 1.90s).

When should I use Kimi K2.6 (Non-reasoning) vs Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning)?

Choose based on your priorities: Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) for lower cost, Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) for stronger benchmark performance, and Kimi K2.6 (Non-reasoning) for faster generation. For latency-sensitive apps, check the TTFT comparison above.