Head to head · Open-weight models you run yourself · October 2026 research run
Kimi K3.1 Pro vs Qwen3.6-27B
Qwen3.6-27B scores 66.7 (B) on agent readiness against Kimi K3.1 Pro's 48.6 (D), and leads in 3 of 4 scored categories. Kimi K3.1 Pro leads on documentation and upkeep. Both do open-weight models you run yourself.
Best open-weight models you download and run yourself for AI agents · All 6359 open weights comparisons
Which one, for what
Best for Operators with a multi-accelerator node who want Moonshot's newest open-weight model for coding and long agent sessions, and everyone else through an API
Ahead on
- Documentation and upkeep, 51 against 31
Watch for
1,561 GB of files, so it needs a node of eight large accelerators at least
Best for Agents that want an open coding and tool-calling model with vision on one 24 to 32 GB GPU or Mac, with plain licence terms.
Ahead on
- Reach, 90 against 40
- Risk, 55 against 50
- Agent interface, 70 against 65
Watch for
No safety results, prompt-injection guidance or security contact
Why the edge
Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.
Reach Qwen3.6-27B +50
Kimi K3.1 Pro 40
Memory 0, the only build is Moonshot's 1,561 GB MXFP4 release, far above 256 GB. Runtimes 5, llama.cpp b12242 alone has the model code in a release, since vLLM's recipe needs 0.34.0 and SGLang's cookbook a branch. Builds 10, one precision. Terms 10, free commercial use below a model-as-a-service revenue threshold. Download 10, not gated. Hosted 5, Moonshot's API and Together serve it. 0 + 5 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 5 = 40.
Qwen3.6-27B 90
Memory 25 of 30, Ollama's text-only 4-bit build is 17 GB and the vision build 18 GB, about 20 to 22 GB with a fifth added, which fits 24 GB. Runtimes 25, released versions of llama.cpp, Ollama, vLLM, SGLang, LM Studio and Transformers all run the qwen3_5 architecture. Builds 10 of 15, Alibaba's only quantised build is FP8. Terms 15, Apache 2.0 with nothing added. Download 10, neither repository is gated. Hosted 5, three inference providers are live on Hugging Face and Alibaba's Model Studio serves it per the card.
Documentation and upkeep Kimi K3.1 Pro +20
Kimi K3.1 Pro 51
Model card 11, no limitations, languages or cut-off. Training data 5, one general sentence. Last change 20, a commit on 5 November 2026. Responsiveness 0, none of the 8 newest discussions has a reply from Moonshot. Version policy 5, Kimi K3 keeps its repository and no dated note was found. File health 10, the files agree. 11 + 5 + 20 + 0 + 5 + 10 = 51.
Qwen3.6-27B 31
Model card 11 of 20, intended use, architecture, parameters and context are there, but limitations, languages and a knowledge cut-off aren't. Training data 5, only a general family description without a cut-off, in the GitHub README. Last change 5, the files last changed on 24 April 2026, 191 days before this check, and Qwen's GitHub repository holds only a README and licence, so no reference code of Alibaba's changed later. Responsiveness 0, Qwen answered none of the 40 most recent questions and reports, recounted on 1 November. Version policy 5, earlier and later 27B models stay in their own repositories without dated notes. File health 5, the files agree with the card but template and tool-calling reports wait without a reply.
Risk Qwen3.6-27B +5
Kimi K3.1 Pro 50
File safety 15, safetensors only, less 10 for remote code and prompts built by the repository's script. Provenance 15, Moonshot's own organisation with a hash on every file. Safety evaluation 10, Moonshot's own cyber benchmark results and nobody else's yet. Agent guidance 0, none on the card. Licence risk 10, the revenue threshold. Security programme 0, no way to report a flaw found. 15 + 15 + 10 + 0 + 10 + 0 = 50.
Qwen3.6-27B 55
File safety 25, safetensors only and nothing from the repository runs to load it or build prompts. Provenance 15, the files are in the Qwen organisation that Qwen's GitHub links to, and every file has a hash on the Hub. Safety evaluation 0, none published on the card or README. Agent guidance 0, nothing on prompt injection, refusals or safeguards. Licence risk 15, plain Apache 2.0 that hasn't changed. Security programme 0, no security.txt, SECURITY.md or reporting route was found, and Alibaba's group security centre couldn't be checked, so it's scored as absent.
Agent interface Qwen3.6-27B +5
Kimi K3.1 Pro 65
Chat template 10, the format is only code to run. Tool-calling format 10, the parser is named in the runtimes' recipes and the card doesn't say how tools are declared. Trained tool calling 20, several calls a turn on Kimi K3's tools channel. Structured output 5, named among linked guides without the how. Reasoning control 10, reasoning_effort per request. Context 10, 1M tokens. 10 + 10 + 20 + 5 + 10 + 10 = 65.
Qwen3.6-27B 70
Chat template 20, a Jinja file in the repository. Tool-calling format 10 of 25, the card names the qwen3_coder parser but the declaration and call format live only in the template. Trained tool calling 20, the template renders several calls in one turn. Structured output 0, not documented. Reasoning control 10, thinking turns off per request and comes back in think tags split out by the qwen3 parser. Context 10, 262,144 tokens native.
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Kimi K3.1 Pro | Qwen3.6-27B | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | 35%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Reach | 25%25 | 40 | 90 | Qwen3.6-27B +50 |
| Risk | 20%20 | 50 | 55 | Qwen3.6-27B +5 |
| Agent interface | 10%10 | 65 | 70 | Qwen3.6-27B +5 |
| Documentation and upkeep | 10%10 | 51 | 31 | Kimi K3.1 Pro +20 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | D 48.6/100 | B 66.7/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Kimi K3.1 Pro | Qwen3.6-27B |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Open-weight model | Open-weight model |
| Vendor | Moonshot AI | Alibaba (Qwen team) |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | ||
| Auth | None | None |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Kimi K3.1 Pro License (modified MIT) | Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | 2026-11-05 | 2026-04-22 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (4) |
How the scores have moved
Kimi K3.1 Pro
No score change since it was listed.
Verdicts
Kimi K3.1 Pro
Moonshot's newest flagship, eight days old when read, for operators with a rack. Only llama.cpp has its model code in a release, with vLLM and SGLang support still on a release candidate and a branch. The licence is permissive below a revenue threshold, and Moonshot hasn't answered a discussion on the repository yet.
Qwen3.6-27B
A capable dense cousin for agentic coding and tool calls with images and video in, running in every major runtime. Ollama's 4-bit build needs about 22 GB, and three providers host it. The main risk is silence, with no safety results, no agent guidance, no answers in its repository and Qwen3.8-27B now ahead of it.
Before you call either
Kimi K3.1 Pro
- Use Moonshot's API or Together unless you have a node of eight B300-class accelerators
- With vLLM use 0.34.0 or later and the recipe's flags,
--tool-call-parser kimi_k3 --reasoning-parser kimi_k3 - Pass the whole assistant message back in later turns, reasoning_content and tool_calls included, as the card requires
- Set
reasoning_effortto low, high or max per request. Max is the default and thinking can't be turned off - Kimi K3's model code doesn't load it, because the attention layers changed
- Validate JSON output yourself, since the card doesn't document structured output for the weights
Qwen3.6-27B
- Quickest start is
ollama run qwen3.6:27b, about 18 GB of files with the vision projector - Alibaba's FP8 build with the card's parsers is
vllm serve Qwen/Qwen3.6-27B-FP8 --max-model-len 262144 --reasoning-parser qwen3 --enable-auto-tool-choice --tool-call-parser qwen3_coder, vllm 0.19.0 or later - Use the qwen3_coder tool parser, the template writes calls as function and parameter blocks inside tool_call
- Thinking is on by default, pass
"chat_template_kwargs": {"enable_thinking": false}for short tasks, and/thinkand/nothinkaren't supported "preserve_thinking": truein chat_template_kwargs keeps earlier reasoning in context, which helps long agent sessions but grows the prompt- Sampling per the card is temperature 1.0, top_p 0.95, top_k 20 when thinking, and temperature 0.7, top_p 0.8, presence_penalty 1.5 without
- Keep at least 128K of context if you rely on thinking, and turn on YaRN only beyond 262,144 tokens
- Validate any JSON it returns or use the runtime's guided decoding, since structured output isn't documented
- Qwen3.8-27B (listed as qwen3-8-27b) is the newer model at this size on the same runtimes
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Kimi K3.1 Pro or Qwen3.6-27B?
Qwen3.6-27B scores 66.7 (B) on agent readiness against Kimi K3.1 Pro's 48.6 (D), and leads in 3 of 4 scored categories. Kimi K3.1 Pro leads on documentation and upkeep.
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Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/kimi-k3-1-pro-vs-qwen3-6-27b.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/kimi-k3-1-pro.json·/api/v1/tools/qwen3-6-27b.json - From a terminal
anchor compare kimi-k3-1-pro qwen3-6-27b(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "kimi-k3-1-pro", "b": "qwen3-6-27b"}at/mcp, no key