Kimi K3 (Low) vs Mistral Small 3.1
Which is better for the money: Kimi K3 (Low) by Kimi or Mistral Small 3.1 by Mistral? 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 23.0 points higher (30.1 vs 7.1) but costs 43× as much to run the benchmark ($1190 vs $27.8; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Kimi K3 (Low) when you need intelligence above 7.1, and Mistral Small 3.1 when 7.1 is enough.
| Metric | Kimi K3 (Low) | Mistral Small 3.1 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 30.1 | 7.1 | −76.4% Mistral Small 3.1 is 76.4% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,190.42 | $27.82 | −97.7% Mistral Small 3.1 is 97.7% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 56.42s | 11.25s | −80.1% Mistral Small 3.1 is 80.1% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $3.00 / $15.0 | $0.08 / $0.14 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Mistral Small 3.1 vs Kimi K3 (Low): 76.4% less intelligence, 97.7% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 80.1% 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.
- Mistral Small 3.1 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
Kimi K3 (Low)Mistral Small 3.1Today'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/mistral-small-3-1 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/kimi-k3-low/mistral-small-3-1?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill