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Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Kimi K2.6

Claude Sonnet 4.6 leads Kimi K2.6 on coding, 57.3 to 52.1 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Kimi K2.6 costs 3.8x less per output token ($4.00 vs $15.00 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 99 benchmarks have a result for both.

Replace Claude Sonnet 4.6 Replace Kimi K2.6
Claude Sonnet 4.6Anthropic
Coding
57.3
Overall
60.3
Output $/M
$15.00
68
Kimi K2.6Moonshot AI
Coding
52.1
Overall
60.5
Output $/M
$4.00
31
vs boards won of 99 shared

Claude Sonnet 4.6 or Kimi K2.6: which to pick

Pick Claude Sonnet 4.6 for coding: it scores 57.3 on the Vibe Coding Index against 52.1 for Kimi K2.6.

Pick Kimi K2.6 for output tokens 3.8x cheaper ($4.00 vs $15.00 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.35 against $1.68).

Model AClaude Sonnet 4.6Anthropic57.3/1005 independent benchmarks$1.68 per solved taskModel BKimi K2.6Moonshot AI52.1/1003 independent benchmarks$0.35 per solved task
Shared results
99
Claude Sonnet 4.6 only
19
Kimi K2.6 only
10
Like-for-like categories
8 of 9

Only benchmarks that tested both models count toward a pick; a result only one model has is shown but not compared.

Which one for your work

Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.

At a glance

Coding index
Claude Sonnet 4.6 57.3 from 5 benchmarks, Kimi K2.6 52.1 from 3 benchmarks.
Widest category
Math, 10.4 points apart on average over 4 shared benchmarks.
Widest single gap
ProofBench: Claude Sonnet 4.6 45.0% against Kimi K2.6 16.0%, 29.0 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
Output price
Claude Sonnet 4.6 $15.00 against Kimi K2.6 $4.00 per million output tokens, 3.8x apart.
Context window
Claude Sonnet 4.6 takes 1M tokens, Kimi K2.6 262K.

Benchmark by benchmark

First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.

Boards won, where both have a result
CategoryClaude Sonnet 4.6BarsKimi K2.6Ties
Coding142
Intelligence20
Agentic work122
Reasoning66
Math22
Knowledge74
Web design71
General1814
All shared boards6831
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index142
Coding benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Kimi K2.6
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4.6Kimi K2.6Leader
LiveBench coding66.6%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LMArena WebDev15231509Claude Sonnet 4.6
AA Coding Index63.061.8Claude Sonnet 4.6
LiveCodeBench (Vals AI)82.1%86.8%Kimi K2.6
SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI)77.4%76.2%Claude Sonnet 4.6
Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI)55.8%37.9%Claude Sonnet 4.6
Code migration (Vals AI)39.9%27.8%Claude Sonnet 4.6
ProgramBench (Vals AI)0.5%0.0%Claude Sonnet 4.6
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI)57.3%53.6%Claude Sonnet 4.6
SkillsBench (Vals AI)49.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
SciCode50.1%51.5%Kimi K2.6
Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run)53.0%43.9%Claude Sonnet 4.6
Terminal-Bench53.4%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
FrontierCode24.3%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
WeirdML66.1%55.9%Claude Sonnet 4.6
ALE-BenchNot measured1092.7Only Kimi K2.6 measured
LMArena Text: coding15031489Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: software and IT14911484Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena WebDev: React15121505Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena WebDev: HTML15271485Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena WebDev: from an image15291521Claude Sonnet 4.6
Neither model has a result on the other 18 boards here
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
Intelligence benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Kimi K2.6
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4.6Kimi K2.6Leader
AA Intelligence Index30.127.0Claude Sonnet 4.6
Epoch Capabilities Index152.8150.9Claude Sonnet 4.6
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index122
Agentic work benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Kimi K2.6
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4.6Kimi K2.6Leader
AA Agentic Index31.820.5Claude Sonnet 4.6
Design Arena: agents building web apps11901268Kimi K2.6
Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps12131155Claude Sonnet 4.6
Design Arena: agents building mobile apps12121156Claude Sonnet 4.6
Design Arena: agents building Android apps11971161Claude Sonnet 4.6
Design Arena: agents building Godot games12261120Claude Sonnet 4.6
Design Arena: agents building games11771141Claude Sonnet 4.6
Design Arena: HTML slidesNot measured1135Only Kimi K2.6 measured
Design Arena: PowerPoint slidesNot measured1103Only Kimi K2.6 measured
Design Arena: spreadsheetsNot measured1276Only Kimi K2.6 measured
LiveBench research63.6%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LiveBench browser68.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LiveBench long agentic23.1%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Finance Agent (Vals AI)51.0%44.9%Claude Sonnet 4.6
Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI)25.8%12.4%Claude Sonnet 4.6
Legal Research Bench (Vals AI)38.5%15.9%Claude Sonnet 4.6
Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI)60.2%57.9%Claude Sonnet 4.6
τ²-Bench Telecom79.5%95.9%Kimi K2.6
APEX-Agents43.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
OSWorld 2.09.3%4.6%Claude Sonnet 4.6
DeepResearch Bench54.9%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
OSWorld72.1%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Vending-Bench 2$7,204$6,205Claude Sonnet 4.6
Neither model has a result on the other 18 boards here
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index66
Reasoning benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Kimi K2.6
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4.6Kimi K2.6Leader
GPQA Diamond85.6%89.1%Kimi K2.6
LiveBench reasoning86.4%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
MMMU Pro (Vals AI)83.6%86.3%Kimi K2.6
GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run)87.5%91.1%Kimi K2.6
Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run)33.6%37.5%Kimi K2.6
GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run)87.4%90.8%Kimi K2.6
ARC-AGI86.5%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
ARC-AGI-260.4%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Chess puzzles23.0%20.0%Claude Sonnet 4.6
Mystery game puzzles16.0%18.0%Kimi K2.6
EBR-benchNot measured2.4%Only Kimi K2.6 measured
LMArena Text: hard prompts14851470Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: expert15001491Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: hard prompts in English14931471Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Vision: diagrams13061298Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Vision: homework13111310Claude Sonnet 4.6
Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index22
Math benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Kimi K2.6
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4.6Kimi K2.6Leader
AIME92.3%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
OTIS Mock AIME85.8%96.1%Kimi K2.6
FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3Not measured57.2%Only Kimi K2.6 measured
FrontierMath, tier 4Not measured25.6%Only Kimi K2.6 measured
ProofBench45.0%16.0%Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: math14621474Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: mathematical work14831480Claude Sonnet 4.6
Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index74
Knowledge benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Kimi K2.6
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4.6Kimi K2.6Leader
MMLU Pro87.3%87.6%Kimi K2.6
LegalBench (Vals AI)82.1%84.7%Kimi K2.6
CaseLaw (Vals AI)64.0%61.2%Claude Sonnet 4.6
CorpFin (Vals AI)65.3%66.7%Kimi K2.6
TaxEval (Vals AI)77.1%74.7%Claude Sonnet 4.6
MortgageTax (Vals AI)67.7%65.8%Claude Sonnet 4.6
MedQA (Vals AI)92.1%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
MedCode (Vals AI)Not measured40.1%Only Kimi K2.6 measured
SimpleQA Verified35.5%34.9%Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: science14741468Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare14511457Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: legal and government14701462Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: business and finance14641445Claude Sonnet 4.6
FACTS Benchmark Suite37.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 4 boards here
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index71
Web design benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Kimi K2.6
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4.6Kimi K2.6Leader
Design Arena: websites12841268Claude Sonnet 4.6
Design Arena: UI components12691263Claude Sonnet 4.6
Design Arena: game dev12581250Claude Sonnet 4.6
Design Arena: data viz12781249Claude Sonnet 4.6
Design Arena: 3D12341267Kimi K2.6
Design Arena: all code categories12751271Claude Sonnet 4.6
Design Arena: SVG11961181Claude Sonnet 4.6
Design Arena: ASCII art12351165Claude Sonnet 4.6
LiveBench design71.8%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index1814
General benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Kimi K2.6
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4.6Kimi K2.6Leader
LiveBench data analysis76.1%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI)62.5%56.6%Claude Sonnet 4.6
SAGE (Vals AI)46.6%50.2%Kimi K2.6
MedScribe (Vals AI)Not measured78.2%Only Kimi K2.6 measured
Vals Multimodal Index60.6%56.4%Claude Sonnet 4.6
IFBench56.6%76.0%Kimi K2.6
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR)80.0%81.0%Kimi K2.6
DTBench89.9%90.9%Kimi K2.6
LMCA46.5%37.3%Claude Sonnet 4.6
Furniture assemblyNot measured21.7%Only Kimi K2.6 measured
ExploitBench23.6%18.4%Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text14581455Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: instruction following14761451Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: creative writing14351434Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Vision12831282Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: English14721460Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: non-English14401446Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: Chinese14911520Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: German14281451Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: Japanese14201443Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: Korean14101427Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: French14651471Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: Spanish14641464Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: Russian14401446Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: Polish14431438Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: multi-turn14641453Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: longer queries14791468Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: writing and language14441439Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Text: entertainment and media14311428Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Vision: English12981287Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Vision: Chinese13071346Kimi K2.6
LMArena Vision: reading text12961291Claude Sonnet 4.6
LMArena Vision: humor12481280Kimi K2.6
LMArena Vision: recognizing things1195Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 4.6 measured
LMArena Vision: creative writing12721273Kimi K2.6
LMArena Document14821451Claude Sonnet 4.6
Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
Image generation benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Kimi K2.6
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 4.6Kimi K2.6Leader
Neither model has a result on 5 boards here

What each workload costs

Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.

Chat turn

1K input + 500 output tokens

Claude Sonnet 4.6$0.011Fits in one request
Kimi K2.6$0.0029Fits in one request

Kimi K2.6 costs less

Repository review

50K input + 3K output tokens

Claude Sonnet 4.6$0.195Fits in one request
Kimi K2.6$0.059Fits in one request

Kimi K2.6 costs less

Agent loop

200K input + 10K output tokens

Claude Sonnet 4.6$0.750Fits in one request
Kimi K2.6$0.230Fits in one request

Kimi K2.6 costs less

Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.

Specification differences

The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.

Specifications of Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Kimi K2.6
SpecificationAnthropic Claude Sonnet 4.6MoonshotAI Kimi K2.6
MakerAnthropicMoonshot AI
WeightsNo public weights listedOpen weights
ReleasedFebruary 17, 2026April 20, 2026
Context window1M262K
Input $/Mtok$3.00$0.95
Output $/Mtok$15.00$4.00
Coding index57.352.1
Independent measurements behind it53
Cost per solved task$1.68$0.35
SourceOpenRouter listingOpenRouter listing

Questions

Is Claude Sonnet 4.6 better than Kimi K2.6 for coding?

Pick Claude Sonnet 4.6 for coding: it scores 57.3 on the Vibe Coding Index against 52.1 for Kimi K2.6. Pick Kimi K2.6 for output tokens 3.8x cheaper ($4.00 vs $15.00 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.35 against $1.68).

Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 4.6 or Kimi K2.6?

Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs $3.00 per million input tokens and $15.00 per million output tokens; Kimi K2.6 costs $0.95 and $4.00. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs $1.68 and Kimi K2.6 $0.35.

Which has the bigger context window, Claude Sonnet 4.6 or Kimi K2.6?

Claude Sonnet 4.6, with 1M tokens against 262K.

How many benchmarks is the Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Kimi K2.6 comparison based on?

99 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Claude Sonnet 4.6's coding index rests on 5 independent benchmarks and Kimi K2.6's on 3. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.

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