DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) vs Kimi K3 (Low)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) by DeepSeek 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
Kimi K3 (Low) scores 18.7 points higher (30.1 vs 11.4) but costs 2.6× as much to run the benchmark ($1190 vs $461; premium vs mid-range cost classes). Pick Kimi K3 (Low) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25).
| Metric | DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) | Kimi K3 (Low) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 11.4 | 30.1 | +164.0% Kimi K3 (Low) is 2.6× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $460.74 | $1,190.42 | +158.4% Kimi K3 (Low) is 2.6× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 20.14s | 53.54s | +165.8% Kimi K3 (Low) is 165.8% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $4.00 | $3.00 / $15.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image |
Kimi K3 (Low) vs DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25): 164.0% more intelligence, 158.4% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 165.8% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
- Kimi K3 (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25)Kimi K3 (Low)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/deepseek-r1-0120/kimi-k3-low · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-r1-0120/kimi-k3-low?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill