Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite vs Kimi K3 (Max)
Which is better for the money: Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite 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 28.0 points higher (43.6 vs 15.6) but costs 23× as much to run the benchmark ($3658 vs $156; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Kimi K3 (Max) when you need intelligence above 15.6, and Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite when 15.6 is enough.
| Metric | Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite | Kimi K3 (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 15.6 | 43.6 | +179.5% Kimi K3 (Max) is 2.8× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $155.87 | $3,658.07 | +2246.9% Kimi K3 (Max) is 23× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 6.15s | 56.93s | +825.7% Kimi K3 (Max) is 825.7% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.25 / $1.50 | $3.00 / $15.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text, Image |
Kimi K3 (Max) vs Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite: 179.5% more intelligence, 2246.9% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 825.7% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Max) scores 38.10 for $122.
- Kimi K3 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 55.10 for $3117.
Gemini 3.1 Flash-LiteKimi K3 (Max)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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