Kimi K2 Thinking vs Mistral Large 3 2512
Updated October 21, 2026. 14 benchmarks have a result for both. Coding is ranked on the Vibe Coding Index; every other board is shown as published.
Decision reading
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Kimi K2 Thinking has the edge where a solved task costs $0.61 against $0.77, and where what matters is CorpFin (Vals AI) or TaxEval (Vals AI), where it leads.
- Shared results
- 14
- Kimi K2 Thinking only
- 16
- Mistral Large 3 2512 only
- 14
- Like-for-like categories
- 6 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, six public coding benchmarks
No call
Neither has a coding score yet.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Kimi K2 Thinking
Kimi K2 Thinking leads, 22.0 against 9.3.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Mistral Large 3 2512 has a AA Agentic Index result, 1.0.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
Kimi K2 Thinking
Kimi K2 Thinking leads, 78.5% against 68.4%.
Same board, both measured
Math
AIME
Kimi K2 Thinking
Kimi K2 Thinking leads, 85.4% against 42.9%.
Same board, both measured
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
Kimi K2 Thinking
Kimi K2 Thinking leads, 81.1% against 79.8%.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
Mistral Large 3 2512
Mistral Large 3 2512 leads, 1162 against 1113.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
No call
Both take 262K tokens.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Mistral Large 3 2512
Kimi K2 Thinking $0.0019, Mistral Large 3 2512 $0.0013 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
Kimi K2 Thinking
Kimi K2 Thinking $0.61, Mistral Large 3 2512 $0.77.
Published attempt cost and pass rate
At a glance
- Coding index
- Kimi K2 Thinking not benchmarked, Mistral Large 3 2512 not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Math, 23.6 points apart on average over 2 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- AIME: Kimi K2 Thinking 85.4% against Mistral Large 3 2512 42.9%, 42.5 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Kimi K2 Thinking $2.50 against Mistral Large 3 2512 $1.50 per million output tokens, 1.7x 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.
| Category | Kimi K2 Thinking | Bars | Mistral Large 3 2512 | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 3 | 0 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 1 | 0 | ||
| Math | 2 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 4 | 2 | ||
| Web design | 0 | 1 | ||
| All shared boards | 11 | 3 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index30
| Benchmark | Kimi K2 Thinking | Mistral Large 3 2512 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | 63.4% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2 Thinking measured |
| AA Coding Index | Not measured | 20.1 | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 63.1% | 55.3% | Kimi K2 Thinking |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 60.2% | 41.4% | Kimi K2 Thinking |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 85.3% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2 Thinking measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 31.1% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2 Thinking measured |
| Terminal-Bench | 35.7% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2 Thinking measured |
| WeirdML | 42.8% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2 Thinking measured |
| ALE-Bench | 597.5 | 264.7 | Kimi K2 Thinking |
| Neither model has a result on the other 29 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Kimi K2 Thinking | Mistral Large 3 2512 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 22.0 | 9.3 | Kimi K2 Thinking |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 145.8 | Not measured | Only Kimi K2 Thinking measured |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index3 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Kimi K2 Thinking | Mistral Large 3 2512 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | Not measured | 1.0 | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 93.0% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2 Thinking measured |
| METR time horizons | 59.2% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2 Thinking measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 36 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Kimi K2 Thinking | Mistral Large 3 2512 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 78.5% | 68.4% | Kimi K2 Thinking |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | Not measured | 66.2% | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 83.8% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2 Thinking measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 23.8% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2 Thinking measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 17 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Kimi K2 Thinking | Mistral Large 3 2512 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 85.4% | 42.9% | Kimi K2 Thinking |
| MGSM (Vals AI) | 90.2% | 85.4% | Kimi K2 Thinking |
| AA Math Index | 94.7 | Not measured | Only Kimi K2 Thinking measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 94.7% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2 Thinking measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index42
| Benchmark | Kimi K2 Thinking | Mistral Large 3 2512 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 81.1% | 79.8% | Kimi K2 Thinking |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 80.2% | 79.1% | Kimi K2 Thinking |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 65.7% | 61.4% | Kimi K2 Thinking |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 60.6% | 61.0% | Mistral Large 3 2512 |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 71.7% | 73.1% | Mistral Large 3 2512 |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | Not measured | 52.1% | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | 92.6% | 82.2% | Kimi K2 Thinking |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 84.8% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2 Thinking measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Kimi K2 Thinking | Mistral Large 3 2512 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1113 | 1162 | Mistral Large 3 2512 |
| Design Arena: UI components | Not measured | 1102 | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | Not measured | 1080 | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | Not measured | 1136 | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | Not measured | 1099 | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | Not measured | 1142 | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | Not measured | 993 | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | Not measured | 1069 | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
GeneralDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Kimi K2 Thinking | Mistral Large 3 2512 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAGE (Vals AI) | Not measured | 24.6% | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| IFBench | 68.1% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2 Thinking measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 72.0% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2 Thinking measured |
| DTBench | Not measured | 65.1% | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| LMCA | Not measured | 16.7% | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| CL-bench | 17.6% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2 Thinking measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 40 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Kimi K2 Thinking | Mistral Large 3 2512 | 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
Mistral Large 3 2512 costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Mistral Large 3 2512 costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Mistral Large 3 2512 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 Thinking | Mistral Large 3 2512 |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Moonshot AI | Mistral AI |
| Weights | Open weights | No public weights listed |
| Released | November 6, 2025 | December 1, 2025 |
| Context window | 262K | 262K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.60 | $0.50 |
| Output $/Mtok | $2.50 | $1.50 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 1 | 1 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.61 | $0.77 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Kimi K2 Thinking better than Mistral Large 3 2512 for coding?
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Kimi K2 Thinking has the edge where a solved task costs $0.61 against $0.77, and where what matters is CorpFin (Vals AI) or TaxEval (Vals AI), where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Kimi K2 Thinking or Mistral Large 3 2512?
Kimi K2 Thinking costs $0.60 per million input tokens and $2.50 per million output tokens; Mistral Large 3 2512 costs $0.50 and $1.50. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Kimi K2 Thinking costs $0.61 and Mistral Large 3 2512 $0.77.
Which has the bigger context window, Kimi K2 Thinking or Mistral Large 3 2512?
Neither: both take 262K tokens.
How many benchmarks is the Kimi K2 Thinking vs Mistral Large 3 2512 comparison based on?
14 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. Kimi K2 Thinking's coding index rests on 1 independent benchmark and Mistral Large 3 2512's on 1. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.