Kimi K2.6 vs o4 Mini
Updated October 21, 2026. 71 benchmarks have a result for both. Coding is ranked on the Vibe Coding Index; every other board is shown as published.
Decision reading
Pick o4 Mini for coding: it scores 68.6 on the Vibe Coding Index against 44.2 for Kimi K2.6.
Pick Kimi K2.6 when output tokens cost 1.3x less, or when the context window is larger, 262K against 200K tokens.
- Shared results
- 71
- Kimi K2.6 only
- 38
- o4 Mini only
- 23
- Like-for-like categories
- 8 of 9
Shared results can support a head-to-head reading. Results only one model has describe coverage, not superiority.
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.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, four public coding benchmarks
o4 Mini
o4 Mini scores 68.6 against 44.2.
1 and 2 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Kimi K2.6
Kimi K2.6 leads, 27.0 against 16.7.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Kimi K2.6 has a AA Agentic Index result, 20.5.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
Kimi K2.6
Kimi K2.6 leads, 89.1% against 74.5%.
Same board, both measured
Math
AIME
No call
Only o4 Mini has a AIME result, 83.7%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
Kimi K2.6
Kimi K2.6 leads, 87.6% against 80.6%.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
Kimi K2.6
Kimi K2.6 leads, 1269 against 985.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
Kimi K2.6
Kimi K2.6 takes 262K tokens against 200K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Kimi K2.6
Kimi K2.6 $0.0024, o4 Mini $0.0033 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Kimi K2.6 has the number, $0.35.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- Kimi K2.6 44.2 from 1 benchmark, o4 Mini 68.6 from 2 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 40.4 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- Design Arena: 3D: Kimi K2.6 1268 against o4 Mini 854, 51.8 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Kimi K2.6 $3.41 against o4 Mini $4.40 per million output tokens, 1.3x apart.
- Context window
- Kimi K2.6 takes 262K tokens, o4 Mini 200K.
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.
| Category | Kimi K2.6 | Bars | o4 Mini | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 5 | 0 | ||
| Intelligence | 2 | 0 | ||
| Agentic work | 1 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 11 | 1 | ||
| Math | 5 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 10 | 1 | ||
| Web design | 6 | 0 | ||
| General | 29 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 69 | 2 |
CodingLike-for-likeFour of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index50
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | o4 Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aider polyglot | Not measured | 72.0% | Only o4 Mini measured |
| SWE-bench Verified | Not measured | 64.6% | Only o4 Mini measured |
| SWE-bench Multimodal | Not measured | 33.9% | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1509 | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| AA Coding Index | 61.8 | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 86.8% | 82.2% | Kimi K2.6 |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 76.2% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 37.9% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 27.8% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 0.0% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 53.6% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 85.9% | Only o4 Mini measured |
| SciCode | 51.5% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 43.9% | 15.2% | Kimi K2.6 |
| GSO-Bench | Not measured | 3.6% | Only o4 Mini measured |
| WeirdML | 55.9% | 52.6% | Kimi K2.6 |
| ALE-Bench | 1092.7 | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1489 | 1368 | Kimi K2.6 |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1484 | 1367 | Kimi K2.6 |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1505 | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1485 | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | 1521 | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | o4 Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 27.0 | 16.7 | Kimi K2.6 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 150.9 | 145.5 | Kimi K2.6 |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | o4 Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 20.5 | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | 1268 | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps | 1155 | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | 1156 | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Android apps | 1166 | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Godot games | 1120 | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building games | 1141 | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| Design Arena: HTML slides | 1184 | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| Design Arena: PowerPoint slides | 1128 | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| Design Arena: spreadsheets | 1276 | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 44.9% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 12.4% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 15.9% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 57.9% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 95.9% | 55.6% | Kimi K2.6 |
| METR time horizons | Not measured | 63.9% | Only o4 Mini measured |
| OSWorld 2.0 | 4.6% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $6,205 | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 21 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index111
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | o4 Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 89.1% | 74.5% | Kimi K2.6 |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 86.3% | 79.7% | Kimi K2.6 |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 91.1% | 78.4% | Kimi K2.6 |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 37.5% | 16.5% | Kimi K2.6 |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 90.8% | 79.6% | Kimi K2.6 |
| ARC-AGI | Not measured | 58.7% | Only o4 Mini measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | Not measured | 6.1% | Only o4 Mini measured |
| SimpleBench | Not measured | 38.7% | Only o4 Mini measured |
| Chess puzzles | 20.0% | 22.0% | o4 Mini |
| Mystery game puzzles | 18.0% | 5.0% | Kimi K2.6 |
| EBR-bench | 2.4% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| VPCT | Not measured | 57.5% | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1470 | 1351 | Kimi K2.6 |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1491 | 1343 | Kimi K2.6 |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1471 | 1366 | Kimi K2.6 |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1298 | 1197 | Kimi K2.6 |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1310 | 1234 | Kimi K2.6 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 4 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index50
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | o4 Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | Not measured | 83.7% | Only o4 Mini measured |
| MATH 500 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 94.2% | Only o4 Mini measured |
| MGSM (Vals AI) | Not measured | 93.4% | Only o4 Mini measured |
| AA Math Index | Not measured | 90.7 | Only o4 Mini measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 90.7% | Only o4 Mini measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 96.1% | 81.7% | Kimi K2.6 |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 57.2% | 36.1% | Kimi K2.6 |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 25.6% | 4.9% | Kimi K2.6 |
| ProofBench | 16.0% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| MATH level 5 | Not measured | 97.8% | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1474 | 1389 | Kimi K2.6 |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1480 | 1379 | Kimi K2.6 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index101
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | o4 Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 87.6% | 80.6% | Kimi K2.6 |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 84.7% | 79.2% | Kimi K2.6 |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 61.2% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 66.7% | 59.0% | Kimi K2.6 |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 74.7% | 74.8% | o4 Mini |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 65.8% | 64.8% | Kimi K2.6 |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | Not measured | 96.0% | Only o4 Mini measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 40.1% | 33.8% | Kimi K2.6 |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 83.2% | Only o4 Mini measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | 34.9% | 19.6% | Kimi K2.6 |
| GeoBench | Not measured | 64.0% | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1468 | 1354 | Kimi K2.6 |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1457 | 1361 | Kimi K2.6 |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1462 | 1350 | Kimi K2.6 |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1445 | 1325 | Kimi K2.6 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index60
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | o4 Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1269 | 985 | Kimi K2.6 |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1266 | 983 | Kimi K2.6 |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1251 | 1004 | Kimi K2.6 |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1249 | 990 | Kimi K2.6 |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1268 | 854 | Kimi K2.6 |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1272 | 977 | Kimi K2.6 |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1181 | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1164 | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index290
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | o4 Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | 56.6% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 50.2% | 41.1% | Kimi K2.6 |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 78.2% | 69.1% | Kimi K2.6 |
| Vals Multimodal Index | 56.4% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| IFBench | 76.0% | 68.7% | Kimi K2.6 |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 81.0% | 61.0% | Kimi K2.6 |
| DTBench | 90.9% | 77.6% | Kimi K2.6 |
| LMCA | 37.3% | 26.5% | Kimi K2.6 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | Not measured | 77.8% | Only o4 Mini measured |
| Creative writing (Lech Mazur) | Not measured | 75.0% | Only o4 Mini measured |
| Furniture assembly | 21.7% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| ExploitBench | 18.4% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1455 | 1353 | Kimi K2.6 |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1451 | 1320 | Kimi K2.6 |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1434 | 1294 | Kimi K2.6 |
| LMArena Vision | 1282 | 1194 | Kimi K2.6 |
| LMArena Text: English | 1460 | 1367 | Kimi K2.6 |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1446 | 1337 | Kimi K2.6 |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1520 | 1354 | Kimi K2.6 |
| LMArena Text: German | 1451 | 1336 | Kimi K2.6 |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1443 | 1308 | Kimi K2.6 |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1427 | 1312 | Kimi K2.6 |
| LMArena Text: French | 1471 | 1364 | Kimi K2.6 |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1464 | 1346 | Kimi K2.6 |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1446 | 1334 | Kimi K2.6 |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1438 | 1358 | Kimi K2.6 |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1453 | 1350 | Kimi K2.6 |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1468 | 1315 | Kimi K2.6 |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1439 | 1316 | Kimi K2.6 |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1428 | 1308 | Kimi K2.6 |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1287 | 1200 | Kimi K2.6 |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1346 | 1218 | Kimi K2.6 |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1291 | 1197 | Kimi K2.6 |
| LMArena Vision: humor | 1280 | 1199 | Kimi K2.6 |
| LMArena Vision: captioning | Not measured | 1204 | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Vision: recognizing things | Not measured | 1218 | Only o4 Mini measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1273 | 1166 | Kimi K2.6 |
| LMArena Document | 1451 | Not measured | Only Kimi K2.6 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.6 | o4 Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Kimi K2.6 costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
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.
| Specification | MoonshotAI Kimi K2.6 | OpenAI o4 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Moonshot AI | OpenAI |
| Weights | Open weights | No public weights listed |
| Released | April 20, 2026 | April 16, 2025 |
| Context window | 262K | 200K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.65 | $1.10 |
| Output $/Mtok | $3.41 | $4.40 |
| Coding index | 44.2 | 68.6 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 1 | 2 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.35 | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Kimi K2.6 better than o4 Mini for coding?
Pick o4 Mini for coding: it scores 68.6 on the Vibe Coding Index against 44.2 for Kimi K2.6. Pick Kimi K2.6 when output tokens cost 1.3x less, or when the context window is larger, 262K against 200K tokens.
Which is cheaper, Kimi K2.6 or o4 Mini?
Kimi K2.6 costs $0.65 per million input tokens and $3.41 per million output tokens; o4 Mini costs $1.10 and $4.40. Cost per solved task is known for Kimi K2.6 only.
Which has the bigger context window, Kimi K2.6 or o4 Mini?
Kimi K2.6, with 262K tokens against 200K.
How many benchmarks is the Kimi K2.6 vs o4 Mini comparison based on?
71 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. Kimi K2.6's coding index rests on 1 independent benchmark and o4 Mini's on 2. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.