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Kimi K2.6 vs Mistral Medium 3.5

Kimi K2.6 leads Mistral Medium 3.5 on coding, 52.1 to 25.5 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Kimi K2.6 costs 1.9x less per output token ($4.00 vs $7.50 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 79 benchmarks have a result for both.

Replace Kimi K2.6 Replace Mistral Medium 3.5
Kimi K2.6Moonshot AI
Coding
52.1
Overall
60.5
Output $/M
$4.00
78
Mistral Medium 3.5Mistral AI
Coding
25.5
Overall
37.3
Output $/M
$7.50
1
vs boards won of 79 shared

Kimi K2.6 or Mistral Medium 3.5: which to pick

Pick Kimi K2.6 for coding: it scores 52.1 on the Vibe Coding Index against 25.5 for Mistral Medium 3.5.

Pick Mistral Medium 3.5 for work measured by LMArena Text: German, where it leads.

Model AKimi K2.6Moonshot AI52.1/1003 independent benchmarks$0.35 per solved taskModel BMistral Medium 3.5Mistral AI25.5/1003 independent benchmarks$6.02 per solved task
Shared results
79
Kimi K2.6 only
30
Mistral Medium 3.5 only
2
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
Kimi K2.6 52.1 from 3 benchmarks, Mistral Medium 3.5 25.5 from 3 benchmarks.
Widest category
Web design, 20.4 points apart on average over 8 shared benchmarks.
Widest single gap
GPQA Diamond: Kimi K2.6 89.1% against Mistral Medium 3.5 34.9%, 54.3 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
Output price
Kimi K2.6 $4.00 against Mistral Medium 3.5 $7.50 per million output tokens, 1.9x apart.
Context window
Both take 262K tokens.

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
CategoryKimi K2.6BarsMistral Medium 3.5Ties
Coding130
Intelligence20
Agentic work60
Reasoning80
Math30
Knowledge100
Web design80
General281
All shared boards781
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index130
Coding benchmarks for Kimi K2.6 and Mistral Medium 3.5
BenchmarkKimi K2.6Mistral Medium 3.5Leader
LMArena WebDev15091264Kimi K2.6
AA Coding Index61.846.9Kimi K2.6
LiveCodeBench (Vals AI)86.8%Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI)76.2%66.4%Kimi K2.6
Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI)37.9%2.9%Kimi K2.6
Code migration (Vals AI)27.8%5.1%Kimi K2.6
ProgramBench (Vals AI)0.0%Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI)53.6%39.0%Kimi K2.6
SciCode51.5%40.2%Kimi K2.6
Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run)43.9%33.3%Kimi K2.6
WeirdML55.9%Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
ALE-Bench1092.7764.0Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: coding14891460Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: software and IT14841458Kimi K2.6
LMArena WebDev: React15051254Kimi K2.6
LMArena WebDev: HTML14851308Kimi K2.6
LMArena WebDev: from an image1521Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 22 boards here
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
Intelligence benchmarks for Kimi K2.6 and Mistral Medium 3.5
BenchmarkKimi K2.6Mistral Medium 3.5Leader
AA Intelligence Index27.014.2Kimi K2.6
Epoch Capabilities Index150.9141.4Kimi K2.6
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index60
Agentic work benchmarks for Kimi K2.6 and Mistral Medium 3.5
BenchmarkKimi K2.6Mistral Medium 3.5Leader
AA Agentic Index20.57.0Kimi K2.6
Design Arena: agents building web apps1268Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps1155Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
Design Arena: agents building mobile apps1156Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
Design Arena: agents building Android apps1161Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
Design Arena: agents building Godot games1120Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
Design Arena: agents building games1141Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
Design Arena: HTML slides1135Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
Design Arena: PowerPoint slides1103Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
Design Arena: spreadsheets1276Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
Finance Agent (Vals AI)44.9%32.1%Kimi K2.6
Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI)12.4%4.5%Kimi K2.6
Legal Research Bench (Vals AI)15.9%9.1%Kimi K2.6
Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI)57.9%11.2%Kimi K2.6
τ²-Bench Telecom95.9%94.2%Kimi K2.6
OSWorld 2.04.6%Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
Vending-Bench 2$6,205Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 24 boards here
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index80
Reasoning benchmarks for Kimi K2.6 and Mistral Medium 3.5
BenchmarkKimi K2.6Mistral Medium 3.5Leader
GPQA Diamond89.1%34.9%Kimi K2.6
MMMU Pro (Vals AI)86.3%Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run)91.1%74.8%Kimi K2.6
Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run)37.5%13.8%Kimi K2.6
GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run)90.8%Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
Chess puzzles20.0%Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
Mystery game puzzles18.0%Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
EBR-bench2.4%Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
LMArena Text: hard prompts14701436Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: expert14911432Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: hard prompts in English14711445Kimi K2.6
LMArena Vision: diagrams12981254Kimi K2.6
LMArena Vision: homework13101230Kimi K2.6
Kagi LLM BenchmarkNot measured41.4%Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index30
Math benchmarks for Kimi K2.6 and Mistral Medium 3.5
BenchmarkKimi K2.6Mistral Medium 3.5Leader
OTIS Mock AIME96.1%Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 357.2%Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
FrontierMath, tier 425.6%Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
ProofBench16.0%9.0%Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: math14741431Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: mathematical work14801440Kimi K2.6
Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index100
Knowledge benchmarks for Kimi K2.6 and Mistral Medium 3.5
BenchmarkKimi K2.6Mistral Medium 3.5Leader
MMLU Pro87.6%75.3%Kimi K2.6
LegalBench (Vals AI)84.7%Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
CaseLaw (Vals AI)61.2%44.2%Kimi K2.6
CorpFin (Vals AI)66.7%58.8%Kimi K2.6
TaxEval (Vals AI)74.7%68.0%Kimi K2.6
MortgageTax (Vals AI)65.8%28.9%Kimi K2.6
MedCode (Vals AI)40.1%33.8%Kimi K2.6
SimpleQA Verified34.9%Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
LMArena Text: science14681428Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare14571409Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: legal and government14621437Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: business and finance14451426Kimi K2.6
Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index80
Web design benchmarks for Kimi K2.6 and Mistral Medium 3.5
BenchmarkKimi K2.6Mistral Medium 3.5Leader
Design Arena: websites12681142Kimi K2.6
Design Arena: UI components12631076Kimi K2.6
Design Arena: game dev12501079Kimi K2.6
Design Arena: data viz12491120Kimi K2.6
Design Arena: 3D12671060Kimi K2.6
Design Arena: all code categories12711121Kimi K2.6
Design Arena: SVG1181949Kimi K2.6
Design Arena: ASCII art11651062Kimi K2.6
Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index281
General benchmarks for Kimi K2.6 and Mistral Medium 3.5
BenchmarkKimi K2.6Mistral Medium 3.5Leader
Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI)56.6%Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
SAGE (Vals AI)50.2%37.6%Kimi K2.6
MedScribe (Vals AI)78.2%67.7%Kimi K2.6
Vals Multimodal Index56.4%34.8%Kimi K2.6
IFBench76.0%68.8%Kimi K2.6
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR)81.0%69.3%Kimi K2.6
DTBench90.9%75.5%Kimi K2.6
LMCA37.3%26.1%Kimi K2.6
Surface Evolver BenchNot measured26.9%Only Mistral Medium 3.5 measured
Furniture assembly21.7%Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
ExploitBench18.4%Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
LMArena Text14551421Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: instruction following14511415Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: creative writing14341374Kimi K2.6
LMArena Vision12821222Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: English14601433Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: non-English14461404Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: Chinese15201444Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: German14511453Mistral Medium 3.5
LMArena Text: Japanese1443Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
LMArena Text: Korean14271384Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: French14711448Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: Spanish14641411Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: Russian14461395Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: Polish14381430Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: multi-turn14531423Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: longer queries14681415Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: writing and language14391384Kimi K2.6
LMArena Text: entertainment and media14281382Kimi K2.6
LMArena Vision: English12871240Kimi K2.6
LMArena Vision: Chinese13461244Kimi K2.6
LMArena Vision: reading text12911233Kimi K2.6
LMArena Vision: humor12801216Kimi K2.6
LMArena Vision: creative writing12731198Kimi K2.6
LMArena Document1451Not measuredOnly Kimi K2.6 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 11 boards here
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
Image generation benchmarks for Kimi K2.6 and Mistral Medium 3.5
BenchmarkKimi K2.6Mistral Medium 3.5Leader
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

Kimi K2.6$0.0029Fits in one request
Mistral Medium 3.5$0.0053Fits in one request

Kimi K2.6 costs less

Repository review

50K input + 3K output tokens

Kimi K2.6$0.059Fits in one request
Mistral Medium 3.5$0.098Fits in one request

Kimi K2.6 costs less

Agent loop

200K input + 10K output tokens

Kimi K2.6$0.230Fits in one request
Mistral Medium 3.5$0.375Fits 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 Kimi K2.6 and Mistral Medium 3.5
SpecificationMoonshotAI Kimi K2.6Mistral Medium 3.5
MakerMoonshot AIMistral AI
WeightsOpen weightsNo public weights listed
ReleasedApril 20, 2026April 30, 2026
Context window262K262K
Input $/Mtok$0.95$1.50
Output $/Mtok$4.00$7.50
Coding index52.125.5
Independent measurements behind it33
Cost per solved task$0.35$6.02
SourceOpenRouter listingOpenRouter listing

Questions

Is Kimi K2.6 better than Mistral Medium 3.5 for coding?

Pick Kimi K2.6 for coding: it scores 52.1 on the Vibe Coding Index against 25.5 for Mistral Medium 3.5. Pick Mistral Medium 3.5 for work measured by LMArena Text: German, where it leads.

Which is cheaper, Kimi K2.6 or Mistral Medium 3.5?

Kimi K2.6 costs $0.95 per million input tokens and $4.00 per million output tokens; Mistral Medium 3.5 costs $1.50 and $7.50. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Kimi K2.6 costs $0.35 and Mistral Medium 3.5 $6.02.

Which has the bigger context window, Kimi K2.6 or Mistral Medium 3.5?

Neither: both take 262K tokens.

How many benchmarks is the Kimi K2.6 vs Mistral Medium 3.5 comparison based on?

79 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Kimi K2.6's coding index rests on 3 independent benchmarks and Mistral Medium 3.5'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/kimi-k2-6-vs-mistral-medium-3-5">LLMBenchmark.ai, Kimi K2.6 vs Mistral Medium 3.5</a></p>