Gemini 2.5 Pro vs Kimi K3 (Max)
Which is better for the money: Gemini 2.5 Pro by Google or Kimi K3 (Max) 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 (Max) scores 27.5 points higher (43.6 vs 16.1) but costs 4.4× as much to run the benchmark ($3658 vs $823; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Kimi K3 (Max) when you need intelligence above 16.1, and Gemini 2.5 Pro when 16.1 is enough.
| Metric | Gemini 2.5 Pro | Kimi K3 (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 16.1 | 43.6 | +170.8% Kimi K3 (Max) is 2.7× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $822.85 | $3,658.07 | +344.6% Kimi K3 (Max) is 4.4× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 26.13s | 58.57s | +124.1% Kimi K3 (Max) is 124.1% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $1.25 / $10.0 | $3.00 / $15.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text, Image |
Kimi K3 (Max) vs Gemini 2.5 Pro: 170.8% more intelligence, 344.6% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 124.1% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Gemini 2.5 Pro is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
- Kimi K3 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 55.10 for $3117.
Gemini 2.5 ProKimi K3 (Max)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/gemini-2-5-pro/kimi-k3 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gemini-2-5-pro/kimi-k3?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill