Head-to-head comparison across 3benchmark categories. Overall scores shown here use BenchLM's provisional ranking lane.
Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning)
79
Qwen 3.6 Max (preview)
72
Pick Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning) if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Qwen 3.6 Max (preview) only becomes the better choice if agentic is the priority or you need the larger 256K context window.
Agentic
+10.8 difference
Coding
+22.7 difference
Knowledge
+13.4 difference
Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning)
Qwen 3.6 Max (preview)
$null / $null
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
128K
256K
Pick Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning) if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Qwen 3.6 Max (preview) only becomes the better choice if agentic is the priority or you need the larger 256K context window.
Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning) is clearly ahead on the provisional aggregate, 79 to 72. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.
Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning)'s sharpest advantage is in coding, where it averages 76.8 against 54.1. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is Terminal-Bench 2.0, 50.8% to 65.4%. Qwen 3.6 Max (preview) does hit back in agentic, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.
Qwen 3.6 Max (preview) gives you the larger context window at 256K, compared with 128K for Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning).
Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning) is ahead on BenchLM's provisional leaderboard, 79 to 72. The biggest single separator in this matchup is Terminal-Bench 2.0, where the scores are 50.8% and 65.4%.
Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning) has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 87.3 versus 73.9. Qwen 3.6 Max (preview) stays close enough that the answer can still flip depending on your workload.
Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning) has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 76.8 versus 54.1. Qwen 3.6 Max (preview) stays close enough that the answer can still flip depending on your workload.
Qwen 3.6 Max (preview) has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 65.4 versus 54.6. Inside this category, Terminal-Bench 2.0 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
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