Kimi K3 vs Qwen 3.7 Max vs DeepSeek V4 Pro (2026)
Kimi K3 vs Qwen 3.7 Max vs DeepSeek V4 Pro (2026)
The open-weight (and near-open) frontier has three standouts in July 2026: Kimi K3 (peak capability), Qwen 3.7 Max (coding-agent value), and DeepSeek V4 Pro (cheapest at scale). Here’s how they compare and when each wins.
Last verified: July 25, 2026
Head to Head
| Kimi K3 | Qwen 3.7 Max | DeepSeek V4 Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vendor | Moonshot AI | Alibaba | DeepSeek |
| License | Open weights (Jul 27) | Proprietary API | MIT (open weights) |
| Params | 2.8T MoE | Undisclosed (frontier) | 1.6T total / 49B active |
| Intelligence Index | ~57 (#3 overall) | ~56.6 | 44 |
| Input / Output (per MTok) | $3 / $15 (flat) | $1.25 / $3.75 (promo) | $0.435 / $0.87 (off-peak) |
| Cost / task (30K→5K) | ~$0.165 | ~$0.056 | ~$0.017 |
| Context | 1M tokens | 1M tokens | Large |
| Best for | Peak capability + vision | Coding agents | High-volume text at low cost |
Kimi K3 — peak open capability
Moonshot AI announced Kimi K3 — a 2.8-trillion-parameter MoE with a 1M-token context — on July 16, 2026, with open weights scheduled for July 27, 2026. On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index it scores about 57, ranking #3 overall behind only Claude Fable 5 and GPT-5.6 Sol, and comparable to Opus 4.8 and GPT-5.5. It also brings native vision. Pricing is a flat $3/$15 per MTok (no peak/valley). Pick K3 when you want the strongest open model, difficult judgment, or multimodal work.
Qwen 3.7 Max — coding-agent value
Alibaba’s Qwen 3.7 Max is a proprietary frontier agent model (1M context) tuned for long-horizon agentic coding. It posts SWE-Verified ~80.4, Terminal-Bench 2.0 69.7, and SWE-Pro 60.6 — on par with or ahead of Opus 4.6 — and demonstrated 35+ hours of continuous autonomous coding with 1,000+ tool calls. It’s natively compatible with both OpenAI and Anthropic API specs, so it drops into Claude Code. At $1.25/$3.75 on its 50% promo (list $2.50/$7.50), plus a 90%-off cached input tier, it’s excellent value. Pick Qwen 3.7 Max when you’re running coding agents and want frontier coding quality cheaply.
DeepSeek V4 Pro — cheapest at scale
DeepSeek V4 Pro (1.6T total / 49B active, MIT-licensed) leads open weights for raw cost efficiency. It scores 44 on the Intelligence Index — lower than K3 — but its off-peak pricing of $0.435/$0.87 (doubling during peak UTC hours) makes a real task cost about $0.017, roughly a tenth of K3. Cache hits drop to ~$0.043/MTok. Pick V4 Pro when cost, volume, and predictable text workflows lead the decision.
The Winning Pattern: Route by Job
- Default to DeepSeek V4 Pro for high-volume, cost-sensitive text.
- Escalate to Qwen 3.7 Max for coding agents and tool-heavy work.
- Escalate to Kimi K3 for the hardest reasoning, vision, or judgment.
Because output tokens dominate cost, a router that reserves K3 for the tasks that need it typically cuts spend sharply versus running one model on everything.
Bottom Line
- Cheapest per task: DeepSeek V4 Pro (~$0.017, MIT-licensed)
- Best coding-agent value: Qwen 3.7 Max (~$0.056)
- Peak open capability: Kimi K3 (~$0.165, #3 overall, open weights Jul 27)
Benchmark on your real prompts — the open frontier is now close enough to US flagships that many teams can run these models as primary, not fallback.