Kimi K3 (Low) vs Llama 4 Maverick
Which is better for the money: Kimi K3 (Low) by Kimi or Llama 4 Maverick by Meta? 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 20.8 points higher (30.1 vs 9.3) but costs 27× as much to run the benchmark ($1190 vs $44.0; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Kimi K3 (Low) when you need intelligence above 9.3, and Llama 4 Maverick when 9.3 is enough.
| Metric | Kimi K3 (Low) | Llama 4 Maverick | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 30.1 | 9.3 | −69.1% Llama 4 Maverick is 69.1% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,190.42 | $43.98 | −96.3% Llama 4 Maverick is 96.3% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 56.42s | 10.45s | −81.5% Llama 4 Maverick is 81.5% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $3.00 / $15.0 | $0.25 / $0.92 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Llama 4 Maverick vs Kimi K3 (Low): 69.1% less intelligence, 96.3% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 81.5% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Kimi K3 (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- Llama 4 Maverick is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Medium) scores 29.90 for $31.2.
Kimi K3 (Low)Llama 4 MaverickToday'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-k3-low/llama-4-maverick · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/kimi-k3-low/llama-4-maverick?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill