Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) by Kimi? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Depends on your budget
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallbac… scores 29.0 points higher (56.0 vs 27.0) but costs 4.8× as much to run the benchmark ($7260 vs $1528; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallbac… when you need intelligence above 27.0, and Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) when 27.0 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 56.0 | 27.0 | −51.8% Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) is 51.8% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $7,259.50 | $1,528.20 | −78.9% Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) is 78.9% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 380.92s | 54.37s | −85.7% Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) is 85.7% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $0.95 / $4.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image, Video |
Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback): 51.8% less intelligence, 78.9% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 85.7% faster end-to-end.
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
- Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Compare something else
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5-5/kimi-k2-6 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5-5/kimi-k2-6?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill