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Claude Sonnet 5 vs Kimi K2.5

Claude Sonnet 5 leads Kimi K2.5 on coding, 57.7 to 38.6 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Kimi K2.5 costs 3.5x less per output token ($2.85 vs $10.00 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 81 benchmarks have a result for both.

Replace Claude Sonnet 5 Replace Kimi K2.5
Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic
Coding
57.7
Overall
63.2
Output $/M
$10.00
60
Kimi K2.5Moonshot AI
Coding
38.6
Overall
44.8
Output $/M
$2.85
21
vs boards won of 81 shared

Claude Sonnet 5 or Kimi K2.5: which to pick

Pick Claude Sonnet 5 for coding: it scores 57.7 on the Vibe Coding Index against 38.6 for Kimi K2.5.

Pick Kimi K2.5 for output tokens 3.5x cheaper ($2.85 vs $10.00 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.24 against $1.87).

Model AClaude Sonnet 5Anthropic57.7/1006 independent benchmarks$1.87 per solved taskModel BKimi K2.5Moonshot AI38.6/1003 independent benchmarks$0.24 per solved task
Shared results
81
Claude Sonnet 5 only
40
Kimi K2.5 only
18
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 5 57.7 from 6 benchmarks, Kimi K2.5 38.6 from 3 benchmarks.
Widest category
Coding, 20.1 points apart on average over 14 shared benchmarks.
Widest single gap
Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI): Claude Sonnet 5 81.3% against Kimi K2.5 17.5%, 63.8 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
Output price
Claude Sonnet 5 $10.00 against Kimi K2.5 $2.85 per million output tokens, 3.5x apart.
Context window
Claude Sonnet 5 takes 1M tokens, Kimi K2.5 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 5BarsKimi K2.5Ties
Coding122
Intelligence20
Agentic work90
Reasoning91
Math11
Knowledge73
Web design80
General1214
All shared boards6021
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index122
Coding benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 5 and Kimi K2.5
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Kimi K2.5Leader
SWE-bench VerifiedNot measured70.8%Only Kimi K2.5 measured
SWE-bench MultilingualNot measured67.3%Only Kimi K2.5 measured
LiveBench coding74.7%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
LMArena WebDev15401437Claude Sonnet 5
AA Coding Index71.546.8Claude Sonnet 5
LiveCodeBench (Vals AI)82.4%83.9%Kimi K2.5
SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI)79.6%70.0%Claude Sonnet 5
Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI)10.6%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI)81.3%17.5%Claude Sonnet 5
Code migration (Vals AI)44.4%7.0%Claude Sonnet 5
ProgramBench (Vals AI)0.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
IOI (Vals AI)45.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI)74.5%42.0%Claude Sonnet 5
Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI)13.8%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
SkillsBench (Vals AI)46.5%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
CyberBench (Vals AI)70.3%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
SciCode54.3%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run)Not measured34.8%Only Kimi K2.5 measured
Terminal-BenchNot measured43.2%Only Kimi K2.5 measured
FrontierCode42.7%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
GSO-Bench37.3%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
WeirdML68.8%45.6%Claude Sonnet 5
ALE-Bench1463.1821.6Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Text: coding14831483Kimi K2.5
LMArena Text: software and IT14741471Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena WebDev: React15411429Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena WebDev: HTML15271426Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena WebDev: from an image15401439Claude Sonnet 5
SciCode10.7%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
Intelligence benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 5 and Kimi K2.5
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Kimi K2.5Leader
AA Intelligence Index38.223.5Claude Sonnet 5
Epoch Capabilities Index156.9148.1Claude Sonnet 5
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index90
Agentic work benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 5 and Kimi K2.5
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Kimi K2.5Leader
AA Agentic Index43.6Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
Design Arena: agents building web apps12451136Claude Sonnet 5
Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps12491114Claude Sonnet 5
Design Arena: agents building mobile apps12151147Claude Sonnet 5
Design Arena: agents building Android apps12271118Claude Sonnet 5
Design Arena: agents building Godot games12251219Claude Sonnet 5
Design Arena: agents building games1227Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
Design Arena: HTML slides1168Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
Design Arena: PowerPoint slides1191Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
Design Arena: spreadsheets1035Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
LiveBench research82.8%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
LiveBench browser72.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
LiveBench long agentic39.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
SREBench (Vals AI)0.4%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
Finance Agent (Vals AI)53.9%35.8%Claude Sonnet 5
Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI)29.4%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
Legal Research Bench (Vals AI)41.8%15.9%Claude Sonnet 5
Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI)66.3%28.5%Claude Sonnet 5
Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI)5.7%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
τ²-Bench TelecomNot measured95.9%Only Kimi K2.5 measured
APEX-Agents54.5%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
OSWorldNot measured63.3%Only Kimi K2.5 measured
Vending-Bench 2$6,378$1,198Claude Sonnet 5
Neither model has a result on the other 18 boards here
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index91
Reasoning benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 5 and Kimi K2.5
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Kimi K2.5Leader
GPQA Diamond88.9%84.1%Claude Sonnet 5
LiveBench reasoning88.7%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
MMMU Pro (Vals AI)83.0%84.3%Kimi K2.5
GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run)91.1%87.9%Claude Sonnet 5
Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run)41.3%30.7%Claude Sonnet 5
GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run)90.5%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
ARC-AGINot measured65.3%Only Kimi K2.5 measured
ARC-AGI-2Not measured11.8%Only Kimi K2.5 measured
SimpleBench60.6%46.8%Claude Sonnet 5
Chess puzzles45.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
Mystery game puzzles35.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
LMArena Text: hard prompts14611453Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Text: expert14891466Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Text: hard prompts in English14641460Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Vision: diagrams12931282Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Vision: homework13111297Claude Sonnet 5
Kagi LLM BenchmarkNot measured78.5%Only Kimi K2.5 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11
Math benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 5 and Kimi K2.5
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Kimi K2.5Leader
AIMENot measured95.6%Only Kimi K2.5 measured
OTIS Mock AIME94.7%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 365.6%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
FrontierMath, tier 429.3%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
ProofBench77.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
LMArena Text: math14671470Kimi K2.5
LMArena Text: mathematical work14811473Claude Sonnet 5
Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index73
Knowledge benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 5 and Kimi K2.5
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Kimi K2.5Leader
MMLU Pro87.5%85.9%Claude Sonnet 5
LegalBench (Vals AI)83.9%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
CaseLaw (Vals AI)Not measured58.7%Only Kimi K2.5 measured
CorpFin (Vals AI)67.0%68.3%Kimi K2.5
TaxEval (Vals AI)75.6%74.2%Claude Sonnet 5
MortgageTax (Vals AI)70.0%66.5%Claude Sonnet 5
MedQA (Vals AI)Not measured94.4%Only Kimi K2.5 measured
MedCode (Vals AI)47.5%39.3%Claude Sonnet 5
SimpleQA Verified33.7%34.3%Kimi K2.5
LMArena Text: science14601459Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare14421448Kimi K2.5
LMArena Text: legal and government14541441Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Text: business and finance14361427Claude Sonnet 5
Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index80
Web design benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 5 and Kimi K2.5
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Kimi K2.5Leader
Design Arena: websites12741248Claude Sonnet 5
Design Arena: UI components12771234Claude Sonnet 5
Design Arena: game dev12771206Claude Sonnet 5
Design Arena: data viz12511219Claude Sonnet 5
Design Arena: 3D12611204Claude Sonnet 5
Design Arena: all code categories12751236Claude Sonnet 5
Design Arena: SVG11921149Claude Sonnet 5
Design Arena: ASCII art12071166Claude Sonnet 5
LiveBench design82.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index1214
General benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 5 and Kimi K2.5
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Kimi K2.5Leader
LiveBench data analysis71.7%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI)66.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
SAGE (Vals AI)48.9%49.9%Kimi K2.5
MedScribe (Vals AI)76.0%76.4%Kimi K2.5
Vals Multimodal Index68.8%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
IFBenchNot measured70.2%Only Kimi K2.5 measured
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR)82.0%78.0%Claude Sonnet 5
DTBench92.5%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
LMCA50.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
Fiction.LiveBenchNot measured86.1%Only Kimi K2.5 measured
CL-benchNot measured19.3%Only Kimi K2.5 measured
Surface Evolver Bench60.0%Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
CL-bench LifeNot measured13.2%Only Kimi K2.5 measured
LMArena Text14421445Kimi K2.5
LMArena Text: instruction following14521431Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Text: creative writing14161422Kimi K2.5
LMArena Vision12731269Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Text: English14501453Kimi K2.5
LMArena Text: non-English14311433Kimi K2.5
LMArena Text: Chinese14781494Kimi K2.5
LMArena Text: German14421441Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Text: Japanese14221423Kimi K2.5
LMArena Text: Korean14121412Kimi K2.5
LMArena Text: French14631454Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Text: Spanish14381450Kimi K2.5
LMArena Text: Russian14501435Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Text: Polish14251445Kimi K2.5
LMArena Text: multi-turn14531444Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Text: longer queries14621445Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Text: writing and language14361425Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Text: entertainment and media14111417Kimi K2.5
LMArena Vision: English12751274Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Vision: Chinese13311328Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Vision: reading text12881276Claude Sonnet 5
LMArena Vision: humor12611284Kimi K2.5
LMArena Vision: captioningNot measured1257Only Kimi K2.5 measured
LMArena Vision: recognizing thingsNot measured1285Only Kimi K2.5 measured
LMArena Vision: creative writing12461269Kimi K2.5
LMArena Document1466Not measuredOnly Claude Sonnet 5 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
Image generation benchmarks for Claude Sonnet 5 and Kimi K2.5
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Kimi K2.5Leader
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 5$0.0070Fits in one request
Kimi K2.5$0.0020Fits in one request

Kimi K2.5 costs less

Repository review

50K input + 3K output tokens

Claude Sonnet 5$0.130Fits in one request
Kimi K2.5$0.035Fits in one request

Kimi K2.5 costs less

Agent loop

200K input + 10K output tokens

Claude Sonnet 5$0.500Fits in one request
Kimi K2.5$0.135Fits in one request

Kimi K2.5 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 5 and Kimi K2.5
SpecificationAnthropic Claude Sonnet 5MoonshotAI Kimi K2.5
MakerAnthropicMoonshot AI
WeightsNo public weights listedOpen weights
ReleasedJune 30, 2026January 27, 2026
Context window1M262K
Input $/Mtok$2.00$0.532
Output $/Mtok$10.00$2.85
Coding index57.738.6
Independent measurements behind it63
Cost per solved task$1.87$0.24
SourceOpenRouter listingOpenRouter listing

Questions

Is Claude Sonnet 5 better than Kimi K2.5 for coding?

Pick Claude Sonnet 5 for coding: it scores 57.7 on the Vibe Coding Index against 38.6 for Kimi K2.5. Pick Kimi K2.5 for output tokens 3.5x cheaper ($2.85 vs $10.00 per million) and a lower cost per solved task ($0.24 against $1.87).

Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 5 or Kimi K2.5?

Claude Sonnet 5 costs $2.00 per million input tokens and $10.00 per million output tokens; Kimi K2.5 costs $0.532 and $2.85. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Claude Sonnet 5 costs $1.87 and Kimi K2.5 $0.24.

Which has the bigger context window, Claude Sonnet 5 or Kimi K2.5?

Claude Sonnet 5, with 1M tokens against 262K.

How many benchmarks is the Claude Sonnet 5 vs Kimi K2.5 comparison based on?

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

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<p style="font:13px/1.4 sans-serif;margin:6px 0 0">Source: <a href="https://llmbenchmark.ai/compare/claude-sonnet-5-vs-kimi-k2-5">LLMBenchmark.ai, Claude Sonnet 5 vs Kimi K2.5</a></p>