# GPT-4.1 mini vs Kimi K3

> Kimi K3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 59.5 to 33.6 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.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gpt-4-1-mini-vs-kimi-k3
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 32

## 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 10.8.
- 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.

## Snapshot

| | GPT-4.1 mini | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | OpenAI | Moonshot AI |
| Noometry Index | 33.6 | 59.5 |
| Rank | 240 | 15 |
| Context | 1.05M | 1.05M |
| Input $/M | $0.40 | $3 |
| Output $/M | $1.60 | $15 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |

## Coding

- GPT-4.1 mini: 30.6 (#293)
- Kimi K3: 61.0 (#10)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 40.4% | 59.5% |
| WeirdML | 37.6% | 82.6% |
| LMArena Coding | 1367 | 1508 |
| DeepSWE | — | 68.5% |
| FrontierCode | — | 44.2% |
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | 23.9% | — |
| Aider Polyglot | 32.4% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1654 |
| FrontierSWE | — | 25.9% |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 48.9% | — |
| CadEval | 16% | — |
| ALE-Bench | — | 1,524 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- GPT-4.1 mini: 33.3 (#55)
- Kimi K3: 41.8 (#20)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | — | 50.6% |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 50.5% | — |
| τ²-bench Banking | — | 37.1% |
| PostTrainBench | — | 32% |
| GBAEval | — | 48.3% |
| GDP.pdf | — | 19% |
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 5,165 |

## Reasoning

- GPT-4.1 mini: 10.8 (#340)
- Kimi K3: 63.0 (#17)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| ARC-AGI-2 | 0% | 60.4% |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 3.5% | 94.5% |
| CritPt | 0% | 23.4% |
| Chess Puzzles | 7% | 39% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1349 | 1496 |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 7% | 26% |
| DTBench | 68.8% | 91.2% |
| LMCA | 21.1% | 52.7% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 135.01 | 157.45 |
| SimpleBench | — | 60.7% |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 48.6% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 93.6% |
| Surface Evolver Bench | — | 95% |
| ForecastBench | — | 61.1 |

## Math

- GPT-4.1 mini: 24.1 (#270)
- Kimi K3: 74.2 (#16)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 6.7% | 72.2% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 44.7% | 97.2% |
| LMArena Math | 1343 | 1491 |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | — | 39% |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | — | 87.8% |
| ProofBench | — | 87% |
| Omni-MATH | 49.1% | — |
| MATH Level 5 | 87.3% | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 4.5% | — |

## Knowledge

- GPT-4.1 mini: 34.7 (#194)
- Kimi K3: 63.2 (#21)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 65.8% | 93.1% |
| SimpleQA Verified | 12.7% | 50.6% |
| LMArena Expert | 1338 | 1521 |
| MMLU-Pro | 78.3% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 61.4% | — |

## Multimodal

- GPT-4.1 mini: 35.8 (#82)
- Kimi K3: 37.8 (#70)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1181 | — |
| Blueprint-Bench 2 | — | 29.5% |
| Furniture Assembly | — | 34.2% |

## Multilingual

- GPT-4.1 mini: 45.7 (#166)
- Kimi K3: 56.3 (#21)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1318 | 1466 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1329 | 1529 |
| LMArena French | 1358 | 1491 |
| LMArena German | 1351 | 1488 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1290 | 1487 |
| LMArena Korean | 1298 | 1458 |
| LMArena Russian | 1324 | 1482 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1319 | 1472 |

## Instruction Following

- GPT-4.1 mini: 73.7 (#118)
- Kimi K3: 77.7 (#14)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1333 | 1483 |
| IFEval | 90.4% | — |

## Long Context

- GPT-4.1 mini: 31.8 (#275)
- Kimi K3: 45.8 (#29)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1344 | 1494 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | 44.4% | — |

## Writing & Preference

- GPT-4.1 mini: 48.6 (#199)
- Kimi K3: 76.6 (#4)

| Benchmark | GPT-4.1 mini | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1340 | 1476 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1300 | 1454 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1147 | 2082 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1354 | 1488 |
| WildBench | 83.8% | — |
| EQ-Bench 4 | — | 1339 |

## FAQ

### Is GPT-4.1 mini better than Kimi K3?

Kimi K3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 59.5 to 33.6 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: 61.0 versus 30.6 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.