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BenchLM

Kimi K2.5 vs Qwen3.5 Flash

Updated September 29, 2026. Rank says Kimi K2.5 is ahead. Price, access, and your workload can each overturn that. Public scores include evidence status and uncertainty.

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Decision reading

Kimi K2.5 has the higher public score estimate, 52.85 versus 45.47, but the 90% score intervals overlap. Treat that as a lead, not a settled winner. 2 results are shared. Category rows resting on Estimated evidence or different benchmark sets are marked directional and do not name a winner.

Model A
Moonshot AI logo

Moonshot AI

52.85/100

Supported · Public rank #69

90% interval 44.5–61.2

Model B
Alibaba logo

Alibaba

45.47/100

Estimated · Public rank #100

90% interval 36.4–54.5

Shared results
2
Kimi K2.5 only
43
Qwen3.5 Flash only
4
Like-for-like categories
0 / 8
Supported: Kimi K2.5 · Estimated: Qwen3.5 FlashHow the comparison works

Which one for your work

Recommendations appear only when a shared evidence basis or an explicit operating constraint supports the call. Secondary and unsupported use cases stay disclosed below the initial list.

  • Long documents

    Prompts that approach the documented context limit

    Qwen3.5 Flash

    Qwen3.5 Flash has the larger documented context window.

    Confidence: documented
  • Chat turn cost

    1K fresh input + 500 output tokens

    Qwen3.5 Flash

    Qwen3.5 Flash has the lower estimated token cost for this stated workload. Costs use the listed standard API rates.

    Confidence: listed-rates
  • Cache-heavy agent loop cost

    200K cached + 20K fresh input + 10K output tokens

    Qwen3.5 Flash

    Qwen3.5 Flash has the lower estimated token cost for this stated workload. Kimi K2.5 has no published cached-input rate, so cached tokens use its listed input rate. Qwen3.5 Flash has no published cached-input rate, so cached tokens use its listed input rate.

    Confidence: rate-fallback
Show secondary and unsupported calls
  • Repository review cost

    50K fresh input + 3K output tokens

    Qwen3.5 Flash

    Qwen3.5 Flash has the lower estimated token cost for this stated workload. Costs use the listed standard API rates.

    Confidence: listed-rates
  • Coding work

    Code generation, repair, and software-engineering tasks

    Not enough matched evidence

    Kimi K2.5 and Qwen3.5 Flash are scored on Estimated evidence for coding, so the reading is directional rather than like-for-like.

    Confidence: limited
  • Agentic work

    Tool use, computer use, and multi-step task completion

    Not enough matched evidence

    Qwen3.5 Flash is not ranked on the public lane for agentic, so no winner is named for agentic.

    Confidence: limited

Which one for a specific job

Choose a job from the LLM Selector's task catalog to see the category row it rests on, under the same basis rules as the table below. A directional row stays directional; choosing a job never creates a winner.

The same task catalog as the LLM Selector. Each job names the evidence surface it rests on; nothing here adds a new score.

38.8Kimi K2.526.5Qwen3.5 Flash

Directional only · BenchAlign v5.7

Kimi K2.5 scores higher, but at least one score rests on Estimated evidence or a different benchmark set. Directional only, no winner.

Coding scores combine specific tasks and setups. Match the editor, harness, and effort to your workflow.

Same basis rules as the category table below

What is actually comparable

Shared results can support a head-to-head reading. Results present for only one model describe coverage, not superiority.

2 categories rest on Estimated evidence or different evidence sets. Those rows remain visible for coverage context but do not name a winner.

Shape of the matched evidence

Only shared public evidence is shown. Sparse evidence stays a ruled list rather than being closed into a radar shape.

Too few matched category axes support a radar. The ruled list below shows only shared benchmark results; positions use each benchmark’s normalized display scale when available.

  • FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3)Math

    Normalized gap 21.7
    Kimi K2.5:27.900%
    Qwen3.5 Flash:6.207%
  • FrontierMath v2 (Tier 4)Math

    Normalized gap 4.2
    Kimi K2.5:4.200%
    Qwen3.5 Flash:0.000%
Bars run 0–100 on each benchmark’s normalized display scale

Category results, on a stated basis

Each row shows the public-lane category score for both models: the BenchAlign v5.7 lane for agentic, coding, and knowledge, and the weighted public rows elsewhere, with the same rank each model page reports. A row is like-for-like only when both scores rest on Supported evidence or the same weighted set. Directional and not-comparable rows remain visible, but they never receive a winner.

Coding

Directional only
Kimi K2.5
38.8
Estimated · #66/143
Qwen3.5 Flash
26.5
Estimated · #103/143
Basis
BenchAlign v5.7 lane · 8 vs 2 public rows
Reading
Directional only

Knowledge

Directional only
Kimi K2.5
47.8
Estimated · #71/169
Qwen3.5 Flash
43.1
Estimated · #85/169
Basis
BenchAlign v5.7 lane · 6 vs 2 public rows
Reading
Directional only

Agentic

Not comparable
Kimi K2.5
36.5
Estimated · #61/117
Qwen3.5 Flash
Not ranked
Basis
BenchAlign v5.7 lane · 14 vs 0 public rows
Reading
Not comparable

Reasoning

Not comparable
Kimi K2.5
55.2
Unranked · 3 rankable rows
Qwen3.5 Flash
Not ranked
Basis
Provisional lane · 1 vs 0 weighted rows
Reading
Not comparable

Multimodal

Not comparable
Kimi K2.5
66.8
#25/50
Qwen3.5 Flash
Not ranked
Basis
Provisional lane · 1 vs 0 weighted rows
Reading
Not comparable

Multilingual

Not comparable
Kimi K2.5
38.2
#8/12
Qwen3.5 Flash
Not ranked
Basis
Provisional lane · 1 vs 0 weighted rows
Reading
Not comparable

Instruction following

Not comparable
Kimi K2.5
84.4
#41/124
Qwen3.5 Flash
Not ranked
Basis
Provisional lane · 0 vs 0 weighted rows
Reading
Not comparable

Math

Not comparable
Kimi K2.5
62.1
#4/7
Qwen3.5 Flash
28.4
Unranked · 2 rankable rows
Basis
Provisional lane · 4 vs 2 weighted rows
Reading
Not comparable

Ranks count the models scored in each category’s lane, so the agentic, coding, and knowledge denominators (BenchAlign v5.7) differ from the provisional-lane categories. Unranked scores sit on the provisional lane’s scale but never name a winner. Like-for-like rows within 0.5 points read as a practical tie.

Bars run 0–100Methodology

What each workload costs

Three fixed token mixes turn per-token rates into comparable decisions. Each scenario states context fit and whether cached input had to fall back to the published list-input rate.

Chat turn

1K fresh input + 500 output tokens

Kimi K2.5
$0.0021
Fits in one request
Qwen3.5 Flash
$0.0003
Fits in one request

Qwen3.5 Flash has the lower modeled cost

Costs use the listed standard API rates.

Repository review

50K fresh input + 3K output tokens

Kimi K2.5
$0.039
Fits in one request
Qwen3.5 Flash
$0.0062
Fits in one request

Qwen3.5 Flash has the lower modeled cost

Costs use the listed standard API rates.

Cache-heavy agent loop

200K cached + 20K fresh input + 10K output tokens

Kimi K2.5
$0.162
Fits in one request
Cached input priced at the published list-input rate
Qwen3.5 Flash
$0.026
Fits in one request
Cached input priced at the published list-input rate

Qwen3.5 Flash has the lower modeled cost

Kimi K2.5 has no published cached-input rate, so cached tokens use its listed input rate. Qwen3.5 Flash has no published cached-input rate, so cached tokens use its listed input rate.

Cached input falls back to the list input rate only where a cached rate is unpublished

Specification differences

Sourced differences are shown directly. Missing facts stay explicit instead of being inferred from a model name or family.

Context window

Maximum documented context; output-token limits may be lower.

Kimi K2.5

256K

Qwen3.5 Flash

1M

API model ID

Kimi K2.5

Not sourced

Qwen3.5 Flash

Not sourced

Cached-input rate

A missing cached-input rate falls back to the listed input rate only in the stated workload estimate.

Kimi K2.5

Not published

Qwen3.5 Flash

Not published

Documented inputs

Kimi K2.5

Not sourced

Qwen3.5 Flash

Not sourced

Documented outputs

Kimi K2.5

Not sourced

Qwen3.5 Flash

Not sourced

Provider availability

Kimi K2.5

Not sourced

Qwen3.5 Flash

Not sourced

Reasoning profile

Kimi K2.5

Non-Reasoning

Qwen3.5 Flash

Reasoning

Weight access

Kimi K2.5

Open Weight

Qwen3.5 Flash

Proprietary

License

Kimi K2.5

Open Weight

Qwen3.5 Flash

Proprietary

Release date

Kimi K2.5

2026-02-01

Qwen3.5 Flash

2026-03-04

If you already use one of these models

Deployment change
The models list different providers, so authentication, endpoint behavior, limits, and feature support may change.
Quality signal
Kimi K2.5 has the higher public score estimate, 52.85 versus 45.47, but the 90% score intervals overlap.
Workload cost
Repository review: $0.039 vs $0.0062. Cache-heavy agent loop: $0.162 vs $0.026.
Context tradeoff
Qwen3.5 Flash has the larger documented window (1M).
Run the same representative tasks against both endpoints before changing production traffic.

Questions

Which is better, Kimi K2.5 or Qwen3.5 Flash?

Kimi K2.5 has the higher public score estimate, 52.85 versus 45.47, but the 90% score intervals overlap. The higher estimate is not a decisive winner because the uncertainty ranges overlap.

Which is better for coding, Kimi K2.5 or Qwen3.5 Flash?

Kimi K2.5 scores higher for coding on the public lane, 38.8 to 26.5. Kimi K2.5 and Qwen3.5 Flash are scored on Estimated evidence for coding, so the reading is directional rather than like-for-like. BenchLM does not name a winner for coding from a directional reading; read the shared benchmark rows directly and test the models on the same task set.

Which is better for agentic tasks, Kimi K2.5 or Qwen3.5 Flash?

Qwen3.5 Flash is not ranked on the public lane for agentic tasks, so no winner is named for agentic tasks.

Which costs less, Kimi K2.5 or Qwen3.5 Flash?

For the stated presets, chat costs $0.0021 on Kimi K2.5 and $0.0003 on Qwen3.5 Flash; repository review costs $0.039 and $0.0062; the cache-heavy agent loop costs $0.162 and $0.026. Kimi K2.5 has no published cached-input rate, so cached tokens use its listed input rate. Qwen3.5 Flash has no published cached-input rate, so cached tokens use its listed input rate.

Which has the larger context window, Kimi K2.5 or Qwen3.5 Flash?

Qwen3.5 Flash has the larger documented context window: 1M, compared with 256K.

Self-host vs API cost

Estimates at 50,000 req/day · 1000 tokens/req average.

Kimi K2.5
API / mo$2,700
Self-host / mo$5,221
Break-even132M/day
Qwen3.5 Flash
API / mo$375
Self-host / moNot listed
Break-even—
Proprietary model — self-hosting not applicable.
Model the full break-even

Benchmark evidence

The full public result ledger is available for audit without forcing a wide desktop table onto a phone.

Browse raw public benchmark evidence49 rows

Agentic

  • Terminal-Bench 2.0

    Kimi K2.550.8%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • BrowseComp

    Kimi K2.560.6%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • Claw-Eval

    Kimi K2.552.3%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • QwenClawBench

    Kimi K2.554.3%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • τ³-bench results

    Kimi K2.565.7%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • DeepSearchQA

    Kimi K2.577.1%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • DeepPlanning

    Kimi K2.514.4%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • Toolathlon

    Kimi K2.527.8%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • MCP Atlas

    Kimi K2.529.5%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • MCP-Tasks

    Kimi K2.559.1%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • WideResearch

    Kimi K2.572.7%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • Gert Labs

    Kimi K2.545.88%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • ResearchClawBench

    Kimi K2.514.0%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • JobBench

    Kimi K2.58.7%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

Coding

  • SWE-bench Verified

    Kimi K2.576.8%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • SWE-bench Verified*

    Kimi K2.570.8%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • LiveCodeBench v6

    Kimi K2.585.0%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • SWE-bench Pro

    Kimi K2.550.7%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • SWE Multilingual

    Kimi K2.573%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • SWE-Rebench

    Kimi K2.558.5%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • React Native Evals

    Kimi K2.577.2%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • SciCode

    Kimi K2.548.7%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • LiveCodeBench (Vals)

    Kimi K2.5—
    Qwen3.5 Flash83.3%
    Source

    Not directly comparable

  • SWE-bench (Vals)

    Kimi K2.5—
    Qwen3.5 Flash64.4%
    Source

    Not directly comparable

Reasoning

  • LongBench v2

    Kimi K2.561%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

Multimodal

  • MMMU-Pro

    Kimi K2.578.5%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • Video-MME

    Kimi K2.587.4%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • MMVU

    Kimi K2.580.4%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • VideoMMMU

    Kimi K2.586.6%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

Knowledge

  • GPQA

    Kimi K2.587.6%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • GPQA-D

    Kimi K2.587.6%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • SuperGPQA

    Kimi K2.569.2%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • MMLU-Pro

    Kimi K2.587.1%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • MMLU-Pro (Arcee)

    Kimi K2.587.1%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • HLE

    Kimi K2.530.1%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • GPQA Diamond (Vals)

    Kimi K2.5—
    Qwen3.5 Flash82.8%
    Source

    Not directly comparable

  • MMLU-Pro (Vals)

    Kimi K2.5—
    Qwen3.5 Flash84.1%
    Source

    Not directly comparable

Multilingual

  • MMLU-ProX

    Kimi K2.582.3%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • NOVA-63

    Kimi K2.556.0%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

Instruction following

  • IFEval

    Kimi K2.593.9%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

Math

  • AIME 2025

    Kimi K2.596.1%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • AIME26

    Kimi K2.595.8%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • AIME25 (Arcee)

    Kimi K2.596.3%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • HMMT Feb 2025

    Kimi K2.595.4%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • HMMT Nov 2025

    Kimi K2.591.1%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • HMMT Feb 2026

    Kimi K2.587.1%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • MMAnswerBench

    Kimi K2.581.8%
    Source
    Qwen3.5 Flash—

    Not directly comparable

  • FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3)

    Shared source
    Kimi K2.527.900%
    Qwen3.5 Flash6.207%

    Kimi K2.5 leads this result

  • FrontierMath v2 (Tier 4)

    Shared source
    Kimi K2.54.200%
    Qwen3.5 Flash0.000%

    Kimi K2.5 leads this result

49 public results · 2 shared

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Last updated September 29, 2026