Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) vs Nemotron 3.5 Super VL
Which is better for the money: Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) by Kimi or Nemotron 3.5 Super VL by NVIDIA? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) scores 0.5 points higher (27.0 vs 26.5) but costs 5.3× as much to run the benchmark ($1528 vs $286; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) when you need intelligence above 26.5, and Nemotron 3.5 Super VL when 26.5 is enough.
| Metric | Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) | Nemotron 3.5 Super VL | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 27.0 | 26.5 | −1.9% Nemotron 3.5 Super VL is 1.9% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,528.20 | $286.07 | −81.3% Nemotron 3.5 Super VL is 81.3% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 54.26s | 6.31s | −88.4% Nemotron 3.5 Super VL is 88.4% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.95 / $4.00 | $0.23 / $0.57 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Video | Text, Image |
Nemotron 3.5 Super VL vs Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning): 1.9% less intelligence, 81.3% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 88.4% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- Nemotron 3.5 Super VL is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning)Nemotron 3.5 Super VLToday'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/kimi-k2-6/nemotron-3-5-super-vl · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/kimi-k2-6/nemotron-3-5-super-vl?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill