Kimi: Models Intelligence, Performance & Price
Analysis of Kimi's models across key metrics including quality, price, output speed, latency, context window & more. This analysis is intended to support you in choosing the best model provided by Kimi for your use-case.
Most Intelligent
Intelligence index
Total 7 models
Fastest
Output speed
Total 7 models
Lowest Price
Blended price (per 1M tokens)
Total 7 models
Kimi offers 7 models, each with different intelligence, performance, and pricing characteristics. Below is a comparison of the key metrics across models.
- For intelligence, the top models on Kimi are Kimi K3 (max) (60), Kimi K3 (low) (48), and Kimi K2.6 (45).
- For output speed, the fastest models are Kimi K2.5 (58 t/s), Kimi K2.5 (58 t/s), and Kimi K2.6 (45 t/s).
- For latency, Kimi K2.5 (2.89s), Kimi K2.6 (2.99s), and Kimi K3 (low) (50.97s) offer the lowest time to first answer token.
- For pricing, Kimi K2.5 ($0.49), Kimi K2.5 ($0.49), and Kimi K2.6 ($0.70) offer the lowest blended prices per 1M tokens.
- For context window size, Kimi K3 (max) (1M), Kimi K3 (low) (1M), and Kimi K2.6 (256k) support the largest context windows on Kimi.
Highlights
Intelligence Evaluations
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index
Intelligence Evaluations
Agentic real-world work tasks, (Elo-500)/2000
Agentic tool use
Agentic coding & terminal use
Coding
Reasoning & knowledge
Scientific reasoning
Physics reasoning
Knowledge
1 - hallucination rate
Long context reasoning
Agentic knowledge work, Elo
Agentic SaaS workflows
Legal agentic work, criterion pass rate
Agentic business operations
Instruction following
Long-horizon agentic tasks
Kubernetes incident root-cause analysis
Visual reasoning
Intelligence Index vs. Price
Context Window
Context Window
Pricing
Intelligence Index vs. Price
Performance Summary
Output Speed vs. Price
Speed
Measured by Output Speed (tokens per second)
Output Speed
Latency
Measured by Time (seconds) to First Token
Latency: Time To First Answer Token
End-to-End Response Time
Seconds to output 500 tokens, calculated based on time to first token, 'thinking' time for reasoning models, and output speed
End-to-End Response Time vs. Price
Further Analysis | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kimi K3 (max) | 1.05M | Open | 60 | $0.84 | 41 | 3.03 | 64.60 | 49.26 | |||
Kimi K3 (low) | 1.05M | Open | 48 | $0.24 | 42 | 3.38 | 62.87 | 47.60 | |||
Kimi K2.6 | 256k | Open | 45 | $0.37 | 45 | 2.82 | 113.09 | 99.14 | |||
Kimi K2.7 Code | 256k | Open | 43 | $0.22 | 40 | 2.98 | 71.26 | 55.77 | |||
Kimi K2.5 | 256k | Open | 36 | $0.10 | 58 | 2.82 | 62.73 | 51.27 | |||
Kimi K2.6 | 256k | Open | 35* | -- | 40 | 2.99 | 15.44 | -- | |||
Kimi K2.5 | 256k | Open | 30* | -- | 58 | 2.89 | 11.49 | -- | |||
Key definitions
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about Kimi
Kimi offers 7 models that we track: Kimi K3 (max), Kimi K3 (low), Kimi K2.6, Kimi K2.7 Code, Kimi K2.5, Kimi K2.6, and Kimi K2.5.
The most intelligent model available on Kimi is Kimi K3 (max) with an Intelligence Index score of 60.
The fastest model on Kimi by output speed is Kimi K2.5 at 58.2 tokens per second.
The model with the lowest time to first answer token on Kimi is Kimi K2.5 at 2.89s. Lower latency means faster initial response time.
The most affordable model on Kimi by blended price is Kimi K2.5 at $0.49 per 1M tokens (7:2:1 cache hit/input/output ratio).
Prices on Kimi vary up to 5x across models, from $0.49 per 1M tokens for Kimi K2.5 to $2.31 per 1M tokens for Kimi K3 (low).
Yes, Kimi offers an OpenAI-compatible API, making it easy to switch from OpenAI or use existing OpenAI SDK integrations.
Yes, all 7 models on Kimi support JSON mode for structured output.
Yes, all 7 models on Kimi support function calling (tool use).
Yes, Kimi offers 5 reasoning models: Kimi K3 (max), Kimi K3 (low), Kimi K2.6, Kimi K2.7 Code, and Kimi K2.5. Reasoning models use extended thinking to work through complex problems before providing an answer.
Yes, all 7 models on Kimi are open weight models.
Yes, provider performance can vary over time due to infrastructure changes, load balancing, and updates. We continuously benchmark all providers and display historical performance trends in the "Over Time" charts.
When choosing a model on Kimi, consider: intelligence (for quality-sensitive tasks), output speed (for throughput-intensive tasks), latency (for interactive applications requiring quick first responses), pricing (for cost-sensitive workloads), and features like context window size, JSON mode, or function calling support.