Model comparison
Kimi K2.6 vs Kimi K3
Kimi K3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 59.5 to 47.7 on the Noometry Index. Kimi K2.6 costs 3.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Kimi K3's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 42 shared benchmarks.
Summary
- They share 42 benchmarks with published results for both. Kimi K2.6 scores higher in 0 categories and Kimi K3 in 10 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Kimi K3 leads 63.0 to 40.5.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is ProofBench: 16% for Kimi K2.6 and 87% for Kimi K3.
- Kimi K2.6 is cheaper at $0.95 / $4 per million input/output tokens, against $3 / $15 for Kimi K3.
- Kimi K3 accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 262K.
Side by side
| Kimi K2.6 | Kimi K3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Moonshot AI | Moonshot AI |
| Noometry Index | 47.7 | 59.5 |
| Released | 2026-04-20 | 2026-07-16 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 262K | 1.05M |
| Max output | 262K | 1.05M |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.95 | $3 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $4 | $15 |
| Results tracked | 51 | 53 |
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Category by category
Coding Kimi K3 leads
Kimi K2.6: 50.7 (#43), Kimi K3: 61.0 (#10)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1509 | 1654 |
| SciCode | 53.5% | 59.5% |
| WeirdML | 55.9% | 82.6% |
| LMArena Coding | 1488 | 1508 |
| ALE-Bench | 1,093 | 1,524 |
| SWE-bench Verified | 76.7% | — |
| DeepSWE | — | 68.5% |
| FrontierCode | — | 44.2% |
| FrontierSWE | — | 25.9% |
Agentic & Tool Use Kimi K3 leads
Kimi K2.6: 21.9 (#137), Kimi K3: 41.8 (#20)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| GBAEval | 0.9% | 48.3% |
| GDP.pdf | 12% | 19% |
| Vending-Bench 2 | 6,205 | 5,165 |
| APEX-Agents | — | 50.6% |
| OSWorld 2.0 | 4.6% | — |
| τ²-bench Banking | — | 37.1% |
| PostTrainBench | — | 32% |
| ExploitBench | 18.4% | — |
Reasoning Kimi K3 leads
Kimi K2.6: 40.5 (#55), Kimi K3: 63.0 (#17)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| NYT Connections (extended) | 87.2% | 93.6% |
| CritPt | 8% | 23.4% |
| Chess Puzzles | 26% | 39% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1470 | 1496 |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 18% | 26% |
| DTBench | 90.9% | 91.2% |
| LMCA | 37.3% | 52.7% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 151.05 | 157.45 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | — | 60.4% |
| SimpleBench | — | 60.7% |
| ARC-AGI-1 | — | 94.5% |
| EBR-Bench | 2.4% | — |
| Surface Evolver Bench | — | 95% |
| ForecastBench | — | 61.1 |
Math Kimi K3 leads
Kimi K2.6: 57.0 (#41), Kimi K3: 74.2 (#16)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 57.2% | 72.2% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 25.6% | 39% |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | 72.9% | 87.8% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 96.1% | 97.2% |
| ProofBench | 16% | 87% |
| LMArena Math | 1475 | 1491 |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 39% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | 14.6% | — |
Knowledge Kimi K3 leads
Kimi K2.6: 54.0 (#54), Kimi K3: 63.2 (#21)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 90.8% | 93.1% |
| SimpleQA Verified | 34.9% | 50.6% |
| LMArena Expert | 1491 | 1521 |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 10.8% | — |
Multimodal Kimi K3 leads
Kimi K2.6: 31.6 (#103), Kimi K3: 37.8 (#70)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| Blueprint-Bench 2 | 3.9% | 29.5% |
| Furniture Assembly | 21.7% | 34.2% |
| LMArena Vision | 1283 | — |
| LMArena Document | 1451 | — |
Multilingual Kimi K3 leads
Kimi K2.6: 54.9 (#37), Kimi K3: 56.3 (#21)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1446 | 1466 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1521 | 1529 |
| LMArena French | 1471 | 1491 |
| LMArena German | 1450 | 1488 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1443 | 1487 |
| LMArena Korean | 1427 | 1458 |
| LMArena Russian | 1446 | 1482 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1464 | 1472 |
Instruction Following Kimi K3 leads
Kimi K2.6: 76.3 (#43), Kimi K3: 77.7 (#14)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1451 | 1483 |
Long Context Too close to call
Kimi K2.6: 44.9 (#52), Kimi K3: 45.8 (#29)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1468 | 1494 |
Writing & Preference Kimi K3 leads
Kimi K2.6: 68.5 (#26), Kimi K3: 76.6 (#4)
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1455 | 1476 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1434 | 1454 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1725 | 2082 |
| EQ-Bench 4 | 1202 | 1339 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1453 | 1488 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Kimi K2.6 better than Kimi K3?
Kimi K3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 59.5 to 47.7 on the Noometry Index. Kimi K2.6 costs 3.5× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Kimi K3's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Kimi K2.6 or Kimi K3?
Kimi K2.6 is cheaper. It lists at $0.95 per million input tokens and $4 per million output tokens; Kimi K3 lists at $3 and $15.
Is Kimi K2.6 or Kimi K3 better for coding?
Kimi K3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 61.0 versus 50.7 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Kimi K3 does, with 1.05M tokens against 262K.
How many benchmarks do Kimi K2.6 and Kimi K3 share?
42 benchmarks have published results for both models. Kimi K2.6 has 51 scored results on Noometry and Kimi K3 has 53.