Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) vs Kimi K3.1 Pro
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Kimi K3.1 Pro by Kimi? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 19.2 points higher (55.1 vs 35.9) but costs 6.5× as much to run the benchmark ($3117 vs $482; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Kimi K3.1 Pro when you need intelligence above 35.9, and Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallbac… when 35.9 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) | Kimi K3.1 Pro | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 35.9 | 55.1 | +53.5% Kimi K3.1 Pro is 53.5% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $482.13 | $3,117.31 | +546.6% Kimi K3.1 Pro is 6.5× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 6.19s | 42.64s | +588.9% Kimi K3.1 Pro is 588.9% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $2.00 / $10.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Kimi K3.1 Pro vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback): 53.5% more intelligence, 546.6% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 588.9% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
- Kimi K3.1 Pro is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback)Kimi K3.1 ProToday's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5-5-low/kimi-k3-1-pro · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5-5-low/kimi-k3-1-pro?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill