# Inkling vs Kimi K3

> Kimi K3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 59.5 to 44.1 on the Noometry Index. Inkling costs 2.3× 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/inkling-vs-kimi-k3
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 41

## Summary

- They share 41 benchmarks with published results for both. Inkling scores higher in 0 categories and Kimi K3 in 9 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Kimi K3 leads 74.2 to 31.3.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is ProofBench: 0% for Inkling and 87% for Kimi K3.
- Inkling is cheaper at $1.87 / $4.68 per million input/output tokens, against $3 / $15 for Kimi K3.
- Kimi K3 accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 66K.

## Snapshot

| | Inkling | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Thinking Machines Lab | Moonshot AI |
| Noometry Index | 44.1 | 59.5 |
| Rank | 80 | 15 |
| Context | 66K | 1.05M |
| Input $/M | $1.87 | $3 |
| Output $/M | $4.68 | $15 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Inkling: 34.5 (#234)
- Kimi K3: 61.0 (#10)

| Benchmark | Inkling | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierCode | 14% | 44.2% |
| LMArena WebDev | 1413 | 1654 |
| FrontierSWE | 4.1% | 25.9% |
| SciCode | 47% | 59.5% |
| WeirdML | 32.3% | 82.6% |
| LMArena Coding | 1464 | 1508 |
| ALE-Bench | 946 | 1,524 |
| DeepSWE | — | 68.5% |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Inkling: 29.6 (#85)
- Kimi K3: 41.8 (#20)

| Benchmark | Inkling | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 33.8% | 50.6% |
| τ²-bench Banking | 25% | 37.1% |
| PostTrainBench | — | 32% |
| GBAEval | — | 48.3% |
| GDP.pdf | — | 19% |
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 5,165 |

## Reasoning

- Inkling: 40.4 (#56)
- Kimi K3: 63.0 (#17)

| Benchmark | Inkling | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| ARC-AGI-2 | 36.5% | 60.4% |
| SimpleBench | 50% | 60.7% |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 79.5% | 94.5% |
| CritPt | 5.4% | 23.4% |
| Chess Puzzles | 21% | 39% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1451 | 1496 |
| DTBench | 87.5% | 91.2% |
| LMCA | 37.6% | 52.7% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 148.54 | 157.45 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 93.6% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 26% |
| Surface Evolver Bench | — | 95% |
| ForecastBench | — | 61.1 |

## Math

- Inkling: 31.3 (#225)
- Kimi K3: 74.2 (#16)

| Benchmark | Inkling | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 33.3% | 72.2% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 4.9% | 39% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 88.9% | 97.2% |
| ProofBench | 0% | 87% |
| LMArena Math | 1479 | 1491 |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | — | 87.8% |

## Knowledge

- Inkling: 55.1 (#49)
- Kimi K3: 63.2 (#21)

| Benchmark | Inkling | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 88.3% | 93.1% |
| SimpleQA Verified | 40.3% | 50.6% |
| LMArena Expert | 1465 | 1521 |

## Multimodal

- Inkling: —
- Kimi K3: 37.8 (#70)

| Benchmark | Inkling | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| Blueprint-Bench 2 | — | 29.5% |
| Furniture Assembly | — | 34.2% |

## Multilingual

- Inkling: 54.0 (#52)
- Kimi K3: 56.3 (#21)

| Benchmark | Inkling | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1434 | 1466 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1490 | 1529 |
| LMArena French | 1458 | 1491 |
| LMArena German | 1446 | 1488 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1429 | 1487 |
| LMArena Korean | 1404 | 1458 |
| LMArena Russian | 1429 | 1482 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1448 | 1472 |

## Instruction Following

- Inkling: 75.1 (#71)
- Kimi K3: 77.7 (#14)

| Benchmark | Inkling | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1426 | 1483 |

## Long Context

- Inkling: 43.8 (#86)
- Kimi K3: 45.8 (#29)

| Benchmark | Inkling | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1434 | 1494 |

## Writing & Preference

- Inkling: 65.2 (#51)
- Kimi K3: 76.6 (#4)

| Benchmark | Inkling | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1441 | 1476 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1387 | 1454 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1611 | 2082 |
| EQ-Bench 4 | 1226 | 1339 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1436 | 1488 |

## FAQ

### Is Inkling better than Kimi K3?

Kimi K3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 59.5 to 44.1 on the Noometry Index. Inkling costs 2.3× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Kimi K3's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Inkling or Kimi K3?

Inkling is cheaper. It lists at $1.87 per million input tokens and $4.68 per million output tokens; Kimi K3 lists at $3 and $15.

### Is Inkling or Kimi K3 better for coding?

Kimi K3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 61.0 versus 34.5 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Kimi K3 does, with 1.05M tokens against 66K.

### How many benchmarks do Inkling and Kimi K3 share?

41 benchmarks have published results for both models. Inkling has 41 scored results on Noometry and Kimi K3 has 53.