Model comparison

GPT-4.1 mini vs Kimi K3

Kimi K3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 59.5 to 33.5 on the Noometry Index. GPT-4.1 mini costs 8.6× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Kimi K3's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 32 shared benchmarks.

GPT-4.1 mini OpenAI

33.5

Rank #232 Confirmed

Kimi K3 Moonshot AI

59.5

Rank #12 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 32 benchmarks with published results for both. GPT-4.1 mini scores higher in 0 categories and Kimi K3 in 10 categories; 10 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in reasoning, where Kimi K3 leads 63.0 to 10.9.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is ARC-AGI-1: 3.5% for GPT-4.1 mini and 94.5% for Kimi K3.
  • GPT-4.1 mini is cheaper at $0.40 / $1.60 per million input/output tokens, against $3 / $15 for Kimi K3.
  • Kimi K3 accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 1.05M.
  • Kimi K3 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

GPT-4.1 mini and Kimi K3 specifications
GPT-4.1 miniKimi K3
ProviderOpenAIMoonshot AI
Noometry Index33.559.5
Released2025-04-142026-07-16
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M1.05M
Max output33K1.05M
Input $ / M tokens$0.40$3
Output $ / M tokens$1.60$15
Results tracked4753

Sponsored placements are available on pages like this one. Advertise on Noometry

Category by category

Coding Kimi K3 leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 30.4 (#286), Kimi K3: 60.6 (#8)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniKimi K3
SciCode40.4%59.5%
WeirdML37.6%82.6%
LMArena Coding13671509
DeepSWE—68.5%
FrontierCode—44.2%
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)23.9%—
Aider Polyglot32.4%—
LMArena WebDev—1659
FrontierSWE—25.9%
BigCodeBench Instruct48.9%—
CadEval16%—
ALE-Bench—1,524

Agentic & Tool Use Kimi K3 leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 33.0 (#52), Kimi K3: 41.8 (#19)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniKimi K3
APEX-Agents—50.6%
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard50.5%—
τ²-bench Banking—37.1%
PostTrainBench—32%
GBAEval—48.3%
GDP.pdf—19%
Vending-Bench 2—5,165

Reasoning Kimi K3 leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 10.9 (#335), Kimi K3: 63.0 (#15)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniKimi K3
ARC-AGI-20%60.4%
ARC-AGI-13.5%94.5%
CritPt0%23.4%
Chess Puzzles7%39%
LMArena Hard Prompts13491495
Mystery Game Puzzles7%26%
DTBench68.8%91.2%
LMCA21.1%52.7%
Epoch Capabilities Index135.01157.68
SimpleBench—60.7%
Kagi LLM Benchmark48.6%—
NYT Connections (extended)—93.6%
Surface Evolver Bench—95%
ForecastBench—61.1

Math Kimi K3 leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 23.1 (#264), Kimi K3: 74.0 (#13)

Knowledge Kimi K3 leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 34.7 (#183), Kimi K3: 63.2 (#19)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniKimi K3
GPQA Diamond65.8%93.1%
SimpleQA Verified12.7%50.6%
LMArena Expert13381520
MMLU-Pro78.3%—
GPQA (HELM)61.4%—

Multimodal Kimi K3 leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 35.2 (#77), Kimi K3: 38.4 (#58)

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniKimi K3
LMArena Vision1181—
Blueprint-Bench 2—29.5%
Furniture Assembly—34.2%

Multilingual Kimi K3 leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 45.9 (#161), Kimi K3: 56.5 (#20)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniKimi K3
LMArena Non-English13181466
LMArena Chinese13291528
LMArena French13571488
LMArena German13491474
LMArena Japanese12911492
LMArena Korean12981465
LMArena Russian13241481
LMArena Spanish13191478

Instruction Following Kimi K3 leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 73.9 (#113), Kimi K3: 77.8 (#13)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniKimi K3
LMArena Instruction Following13321481
IFEval90.4%—

Long Context Kimi K3 leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 31.8 (#270), Kimi K3: 45.8 (#27)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniKimi K3
LMArena Longer Query13441494
Fiction.LiveBench44.4%—

Writing & Preference Kimi K3 leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 48.8 (#193), Kimi K3: 76.7 (#4)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniKimi K3
LMArena Text13411476
LMArena Creative Writing13001452
EQ-Bench Creative Writing11472082
LMArena Multi-Turn13541488
WildBench83.8%—
EQ-Bench 4—1339

Frequently asked questions

Is GPT-4.1 mini better than Kimi K3?

Kimi K3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 59.5 to 33.5 on the Noometry Index. GPT-4.1 mini costs 8.6× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Kimi K3's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, GPT-4.1 mini or Kimi K3?

GPT-4.1 mini is cheaper. It lists at $0.40 per million input tokens and $1.60 per million output tokens; Kimi K3 lists at $3 and $15.

Is GPT-4.1 mini or Kimi K3 better for coding?

Kimi K3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 60.6 versus 30.4 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Kimi K3 does, with 1.05M tokens against 1.05M.

How many benchmarks do GPT-4.1 mini and Kimi K3 share?

32 benchmarks have published results for both models. GPT-4.1 mini has 47 scored results on Noometry and Kimi K3 has 53.

Related comparisons

Go deeper