Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) vs Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) by Anthropic or Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) by Kimi? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) scores 11.2 points higher (38.2 vs 27.0) but costs 4.6× as much to run the benchmark ($6998 vs $1528; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) when you need intelligence above 27.0, and Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) when 27.0 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) | Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 38.2 | 27.0 | −29.3% Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) is 29.3% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $6,998.25 | $1,528.20 | −78.2% Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) is 78.2% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 183.62s | 65.20s | −64.5% Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) is 64.5% 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 (Max): 29.3% less intelligence, 78.2% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 64.5% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) 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.
Claude Sonnet 5 (Max)Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights 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/kimi-k2-6 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5/kimi-k2-6?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill