Kimi K2 Thinking vs o3 Mini
Kimi K2 Thinking leads o3 Mini on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 22.0 to 12.5, and Kimi K2 Thinking costs 1.8x less per output token ($2.50 vs $4.40 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 21 benchmarks have a result for both.
Kimi K2 Thinking or o3 Mini: which to pick
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Kimi K2 Thinking for output tokens 1.8x cheaper ($2.50 vs $4.40 per million) and a larger context window (262K against 200K tokens).
- Shared results
- 21
- Kimi K2 Thinking only
- 9
- o3 Mini only
- 50
- Like-for-like categories
- 7 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.
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 12.5.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
Kimi K2 Thinking
Kimi K2 Thinking leads, 78.5% against 75.5%.
Same board, both measured
Math
AIME
o3 Mini
o3 Mini leads, 86.5% against 85.4%.
Same board, both measured
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
Kimi K2 Thinking
Kimi K2 Thinking leads, 81.1% against 78.7%.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Kimi K2 Thinking has a Design Arena: websites result, 1113.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Kimi K2 Thinking
Kimi K2 Thinking takes 262K tokens against 200K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Kimi K2 Thinking
Kimi K2 Thinking $0.0019, o3 Mini $0.0033 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Kimi K2 Thinking has the number, $0.61.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- Kimi K2 Thinking not benchmarked, o3 Mini not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 61.7 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- τ²-Bench Telecom: Kimi K2 Thinking 93.0% against o3 Mini 31.3%, 61.7 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Kimi K2 Thinking $2.50 against o3 Mini $4.40 per million output tokens, 1.8x apart.
- Context window
- Kimi K2 Thinking takes 262K tokens, o3 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 Thinking | Bars | o3 Mini | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 3 | 2 | ||
| Intelligence | 2 | 0 | ||
| Agentic work | 1 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 3 | 0 | ||
| Math | 0 | 2 | ||
| Knowledge | 5 | 1 | ||
| General | 2 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 16 | 5 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index32
| Benchmark | Kimi K2 Thinking | o3 Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aider polyglot | Not measured | 60.4% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| SWE-bench Verified | 63.4% | 42.4% | Kimi K2 Thinking |
| SWE-bench Lite | Not measured | 32.3% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 63.1% | 71.5% | o3 Mini |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 60.2% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2 Thinking measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 85.3% | 73.4% | Kimi K2 Thinking |
| SciCode | Not measured | 42.8% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 31.1% | 6.8% | Kimi K2 Thinking |
| Terminal-Bench | 35.7% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2 Thinking measured |
| GSO-Bench | Not measured | 1.3% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| WeirdML | 42.8% | 43.7% | o3 Mini |
| Cybench | Not measured | 22.5% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| ALE-Bench | 597.5 | Not measured | Only Kimi K2 Thinking measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | Not measured | 1378 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | Not measured | 1364 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 7.7% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 23 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Kimi K2 Thinking | o3 Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 22.0 | 12.5 | Kimi K2 Thinking |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 145.8 | 140.2 | Kimi K2 Thinking |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Kimi K2 Thinking | o3 Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 93.0% | 31.3% | Kimi K2 Thinking |
| METR time horizons | 59.2% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2 Thinking measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 39 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index30
| Benchmark | Kimi K2 Thinking | o3 Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 78.5% | 75.5% | Kimi K2 Thinking |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 83.8% | 77.3% | Kimi K2 Thinking |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 23.8% | 12.0% | Kimi K2 Thinking |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | Not measured | 77.0% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| ARC-AGI | Not measured | 34.5% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | Not measured | 3.0% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| SimpleBench | Not measured | 22.8% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| Chess puzzles | Not measured | 15.0% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | Not measured | 7.0% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | Not measured | 1365 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | Not measured | 1364 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | Not measured | 1375 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | Kimi K2 Thinking | o3 Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 85.4% | 86.5% | o3 Mini |
| MATH 500 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 91.8% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| MGSM (Vals AI) | 90.2% | 91.3% | o3 Mini |
| 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 |
| OTIS Mock AIME | Not measured | 76.9% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | Not measured | 18.6% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | Not measured | 0.0% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| MATH level 5 | Not measured | 96.5% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: math | Not measured | 1396 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | Not measured | 1399 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index51
| Benchmark | Kimi K2 Thinking | o3 Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 81.1% | 78.7% | Kimi K2 Thinking |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 80.2% | 71.5% | Kimi K2 Thinking |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 65.7% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2 Thinking measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 60.6% | 45.3% | Kimi K2 Thinking |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 71.7% | 69.4% | Kimi K2 Thinking |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | 92.6% | 94.8% | o3 Mini |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 84.8% | 80.2% | Kimi K2 Thinking |
| SimpleQA Verified | Not measured | 15.3% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: science | Not measured | 1339 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | Not measured | 1330 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | Not measured | 1328 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | Not measured | 1313 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index1 board, none shared
| Benchmark | Kimi K2 Thinking | o3 Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1113 | Not measured | Only Kimi K2 Thinking measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Kimi K2 Thinking | o3 Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| IFBench | 68.1% | 67.1% | Kimi K2 Thinking |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 72.0% | 43.0% | Kimi K2 Thinking |
| DTBench | Not measured | 68.8% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMCA | Not measured | 19.0% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| Fiction.LiveBench | Not measured | 50.0% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| Creative writing (Lech Mazur) | Not measured | 61.7% | Only o3 Mini measured |
| CL-bench | 17.6% | Not measured | Only Kimi K2 Thinking measured |
| LMArena Text | Not measured | 1337 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | Not measured | 1337 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | Not measured | 1286 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: English | Not measured | 1351 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | Not measured | 1319 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | Not measured | 1379 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: German | Not measured | 1303 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | Not measured | 1286 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | Not measured | 1313 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1334 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1321 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | Not measured | 1304 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | Not measured | 1294 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | Not measured | 1320 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | Not measured | 1343 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | Not measured | 1313 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | Not measured | 1283 | Only o3 Mini measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 22 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Kimi K2 Thinking | o3 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 Thinking costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Kimi K2 Thinking costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Kimi K2 Thinking 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 | OpenAI o3 Mini |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Moonshot AI | OpenAI |
| Weights | Open weights | No public weights listed |
| Released | November 6, 2025 | January 31, 2025 |
| Context window | 262K | 200K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.60 | $1.10 |
| Output $/Mtok | $2.50 | $4.40 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 1 | 0 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.61 | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Kimi K2 Thinking better than o3 Mini for coding?
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Kimi K2 Thinking for output tokens 1.8x cheaper ($2.50 vs $4.40 per million) and a larger context window (262K against 200K tokens).
Which is cheaper, Kimi K2 Thinking or o3 Mini?
Kimi K2 Thinking costs $0.60 per million input tokens and $2.50 per million output tokens; o3 Mini costs $1.10 and $4.40. Cost per solved task is known for Kimi K2 Thinking only.
Which has the bigger context window, Kimi K2 Thinking or o3 Mini?
Kimi K2 Thinking, with 262K tokens against 200K.
How many benchmarks is the Kimi K2 Thinking vs o3 Mini comparison based on?
21 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Kimi K2 Thinking's coding index rests on 1 independent benchmark and o3 Mini's on 0. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.