Kimi K3 vs Claude Sonnet 4.6: Release Comparison

Name: Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index
Creator: Artificial Analysis
License: https://artificialanalysis.ai/docs/legal/Terms-of-Use.pdf

Comparison of the Kimi K3 and Claude Sonnet 4.6 releases: 2 and 3 models respectively, each with different intelligence, performance, and pricing characteristics. Below is a comparison of the key metrics across all 5 models.

For intelligence, Kimi K3 scores highest: Kimi K3 (max) at 44, against Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Adaptive Reasoning, Max Effort) at 30 for Claude Sonnet 4.6.
For output speed, Claude Sonnet 4.6 is fastest: Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Adaptive Reasoning, Max Effort) at 58 t/s, against Kimi K3 (max) at 39 t/s for Kimi K3.
For cost per task, Kimi K3 is cheapest: Kimi K3 (max) at $2.00, against Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Adaptive Reasoning, Max Effort) at $2.49 for Claude Sonnet 4.6.

Releases compared

Kimi K3

Claude Sonnet 4.6

Intelligence

Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index

Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v4.3 incorporates 10 evaluations: AA-Briefcase, GDPval-AA v2, AutomationBench-AA, Terminal-Bench v4.0, SciCode, Humanity's Last Exam, GDP.pdf, CritPt, AA-Omniscience, AA-LCR v1.1

Estimate (independent evaluation forthcoming)

Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v4.3 includes: AA-Briefcase, GDPval-AA v2, AutomationBench-AA, Terminal-Bench v4.0, SciCode, Humanity's Last Exam, GDP.pdf, CritPt, AA-Omniscience, AA-LCR v1.1. See Intelligence Index methodology for further details, including a breakdown of each evaluation and how we run them.

Intelligence Index vs. Cost per Intelligence Index Task

Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index · Weighted average cost (USD) per Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index task

Most attractive quadrant

Pareto line

Weighted average cost per Intelligence Index task. Each evaluation’s cost is calculated from input, cache hit, cache write, reasoning, and answer token prices, divided by task count, and weighted by its Intelligence Index weight.

Cost

Cost per Intelligence Index Task

Weighted average cost (USD) per Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index task, segmented by token type. Lower is better

Speed & Latency

Output Speed

Output tokens per second · Higher is better

Tokens per second received while the model is generating tokens (ie. after first chunk has been received from the API for models which support streaming).

Figures represent performance of the model's first-party API (e.g. OpenAI for o1) or the median across providers where a first-party API is not available (e.g. Meta's Llama models).

Capability Scores

Capability Indices

Measures the performance of models on specific capabilities and industries

Finance & Accounting Index

Incorporates 7 evaluations: AA-Omniscience, GDPval-AA v2, AA-Briefcase, Humanity's Last Exam, AutomationBench-AA, AA-LCR v1.1, GDP.pdf · Higher is better

Strategy & Ops Index

Incorporates 6 evaluations: AA-Omniscience, GDPval-AA v2, AA-Briefcase, AutomationBench-AA, AA-LCR v1.1, GDP.pdf · Higher is better

Legal Index

Incorporates 7 evaluations: AA-Omniscience, GDPval-AA v2, AA-Briefcase, Humanity's Last Exam, AA-LCR v1.1, GDP.pdf, AutomationBench-AA · Higher is better

Healthcare & Medical Index

Incorporates 6 evaluations: AA-Omniscience, GDPval-AA v2, AA-Briefcase, MLCR-AA, Humanity's Last Exam, AutomationBench-AA · Higher is better

Engineering Index

Incorporates 6 evaluations: AA-Omniscience, Humanity's Last Exam, CritPt, GDPval-AA v2, AA-Briefcase, Terminal-Bench v4.0 · Higher is better

Economics Index

Incorporates 5 evaluations: AA-Omniscience, Humanity's Last Exam, GDPval-AA v2, AA-Briefcase, AA-LCR v1.1 · Higher is better

Further details

							Weights		Provider Benchmarks
Kimi K3 (max)	Kimi	44	2.8T 104B active at inference time	1M	$2.3	39	🤗	+9	View
Kimi K3 (low)	Kimi	34	2.8T 104B active at inference time	1M	$2.3	38	🤗		View
Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Adaptive Reasoning, Max Effort)	Anthropic	30	-	1M	$2.3	58	Not available		View
Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Non-reasoning, High Effort)	Anthropic	25	-	1M	$2.3	42	Not available		View
Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Non-reasoning, Low Effort)	Anthropic	23	-	1M	$2.3	42	Not available		View

Kimi K3 vs Claude Sonnet 4.6: Release Comparison

Intelligence

Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index

Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index

Intelligence Index vs. Cost per Intelligence Index Task

Cost per Intelligence Index Task

Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index

Cost

Cost per Intelligence Index Task

Cost per Intelligence Index Task

Speed & Latency

Output Speed

Output Speed

Model Performance Representation

Capability Scores

Capability Indices

Further details