Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) vs Kimi K3 (Low)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) by Anthropic or Kimi K3 (Low) by Kimi? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallbac… scores 25.9 points higher (56.0 vs 30.1) but costs 6.1× as much to run the benchmark ($7260 vs $1190; 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 30.1, and Kimi K3 (Low) when 30.1 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) | Kimi K3 (Low) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 56.0 | 30.1 | −46.3% Kimi K3 (Low) is 46.3% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $7,259.50 | $1,190.42 | −83.6% Kimi K3 (Low) is 83.6% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 385.69s | 53.54s | −86.1% Kimi K3 (Low) is 86.1% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $3.00 / $15.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Kimi K3 (Low) vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback): 46.3% less intelligence, 83.6% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 86.1% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
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 K3 (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)Kimi K3 (Low)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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