GPT-5 mini (High) vs Kimi K3 (Low)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5 mini (High) by OpenAI 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 13.3 points higher (30.1 vs 16.8) but costs 6.3× as much to run the benchmark ($1190 vs $189; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Kimi K3 (Low) when you need intelligence above 16.8, and GPT-5 mini (High) when 16.8 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-5 mini (High) | Kimi K3 (Low) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 16.8 | 30.1 | +79.2% Kimi K3 (Low) is 79.2% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $188.66 | $1,190.42 | +531.0% Kimi K3 (Low) is 6.3× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 58.72s | 62.29s | +6.1% Kimi K3 (Low) is 6.1% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.25 / $2.00 | $3.00 / $15.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Kimi K3 (Low) vs GPT-5 mini (High): 79.2% more intelligence, 531.0% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 6.1% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5 mini (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Haiku 5.5 (Xhigh) scores 41.20 for $158.
- Kimi K3 (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
GPT-5 mini (High)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/gpt-5-mini/kimi-k3-low · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-mini/kimi-k3-low?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill