Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning)

By Kimi · released 2026-04-20 (6 months) · snapshot 2026-10-24

Off the frontierOn frontier at launch dayopen weights
Intelligence index
27.00
Cost to run the AA index
$1528
Price per 1M tokens (in / out)
$0.95 / $4.00
End-to-end time
65.2s
Better than…

Is Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) on the Pareto frontier, and what beats it?

Off the frontier

No. GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) is at least as smart for the same money or less.

Next step up: Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback), smarter but dearer.

Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) vs GPT-6.1 Sol (Max)Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) vs Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback)
#ModelCreatorIntelligenceTotal costE2E totalOpenReleasedFrontier
1Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning)Kimi27.00$152865.2s2026-04-20
2GPT-6.1 Sol (Max)OpenAI51.80$1082220.5s2026-09-29Frontier
3Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback)Anthropic53.60$217233.8s2026-09-22Frontier

Open in the picker Daily check URL: 200 on the frontier, 409 once beaten

At a glance

Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) today

Time to first answer58.9s
Output speed79 tok/s
Context window256k
Input modalitiesText, Image, Video
0204060$10$20$50$100$200$500$1k$2k$5k$10k$20kCost to run the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (USD, log scale)Intelligence IndexApodex 1.1 (Apodex): intelligence 26.40, $939Beam 1.0 (Reflection): intelligence 30.30, $319Celeris-1 (Celeris): intelligence 6.30, $60.0Claude 4.5 Haiku (Reasoning) (Anthropic): intelligence 16.90, $594Claude 4.5 Sonnet (Reasoning) (Anthropic): intelligence 20.70, $1501Claude Fable 5 (Max, Opus 4.8 Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 49.60, $11161Claude Fable 5.1 (High, Default Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 51.20, $5242Claude Fable 5.1 (Low, Default Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 46.80, $3158Claude Fable 5.1 (Max, Default Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 53.40, $13129Claude Fable 5.1 (Medium, Default Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 48.90, $3983Claude Fable 5.1 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 53.20, $9063Claude Haiku 5.5 (Low) (Anthropic): intelligence 29.50, $34.3Claude Haiku 5.5 (Max) (Anthropic): intelligence 43.40, $330Claude Opus 4.8 (Max) (Anthropic): intelligence 41.80, $6874Claude Opus 5 (High) (Anthropic): intelligence 48.10, $4332Claude Opus 5 (Low) (Anthropic): intelligence 39.40, $1561Claude Opus 5 (Max) (Anthropic): intelligence 50.80, $7275Claude Opus 5 (Medium) (Anthropic): intelligence 44.80, $2732Claude Opus 5 (Xhigh) (Anthropic): intelligence 49.70, $5868Claude Opus 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 42.30, $860Claude Opus 5.5 (Medium, Default Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 51.20, $1627Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Max) (Anthropic): intelligence 30.10, $4925Claude Sonnet 5 (High) (Anthropic): intelligence 31.70, $2086Claude Sonnet 5 (Low) (Anthropic): intelligence 24.30, $653Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) (Anthropic): intelligence 38.20, $6998Claude Sonnet 5 (Medium) (Anthropic): intelligence 28.10, $1218Claude Sonnet 5 (Xhigh) (Anthropic): intelligence 34.40, $3255Claude Sonnet 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 46.80, $1027Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 35.90, $482Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 56.00, $7260Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Medium, Default Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 40.80, $622Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 51.90, $2177DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) (DeepSeek): intelligence 11.40, $461DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) (DeepSeek): intelligence 8.50, $25.4DeepSeek V3 0324 (DeepSeek): intelligence 9.70, $19.9DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (High) (DeepSeek): intelligence 24.40, $121DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (Max) (DeepSeek): intelligence 24.20, $149DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (Max) (DeepSeek): intelligence 34.30, $200DeepSeek V4 Flash Vision (Max) (DeepSeek): intelligence 34.80, $1081DeepSeek V4 Pro 0424 (Max) (DeepSeek): intelligence 30.40, $277DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (Max) (DeepSeek): intelligence 36.00, $1122DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (Non-reasoning) (DeepSeek): intelligence 20.40, $451DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Max) (DeepSeek): intelligence 39.50, $672DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (Non-reasoning) (DeepSeek): intelligence 24.70, $239DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 (Max) (DeepSeek): intelligence 45.10, $445Gemini 2.5 Pro (Google): intelligence 16.10, $823Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite (Google): intelligence 15.60, $156Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview (Google): intelligence 29.70, $1935Gemini 3.5 Flash (High) (Google): intelligence 32.60, $4222Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite (Google): intelligence 22.20, $366Gemini 3.6 Flash (High) (Google): intelligence 34.00, $1614Gemini 3.8 Flash (High) (Google): intelligence 40.90, $1623Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) (Google): intelligence 39.80, $1100Gemini 4 Argon (High) (Google): intelligence 52.60, $2407Gemma 4 E4B (Reasoning) (Google): intelligence 8.90, $14.7GLM-5.1 (Reasoning) (Z AI): intelligence 26.10, $1487GLM-5.2 (Max) (Z AI): intelligence 33.70, $2097GLM-5.3 (Low) (Z AI): intelligence 34.30, $1013GLM-5.3 (Max) (Z AI): intelligence 44.80, $2503GLM-5.3-Flash (Z AI): intelligence 41.80, $306GPT-5 mini (High) (OpenAI): intelligence 16.80, $189GPT-5.4 mini (Xhigh) (OpenAI): intelligence 24.10, $1524GPT-5.4 nano (Xhigh) (OpenAI): intelligence 20.70, $331GPT-5.5 (High) (OpenAI): intelligence 37.00, $3411GPT-5.5 (Medium) (OpenAI): intelligence 33.80, $2095GPT-5.5 (Xhigh) (OpenAI): intelligence 38.40, $5294GPT-5.5 Instant (June 2026) (OpenAI): intelligence 26.00, $1184GPT-5.6 Luna (High) (OpenAI): intelligence 32.10, $108GPT-5.6 Luna (Low) (OpenAI): intelligence 21.00, $27.0GPT-5.6 Luna (Max) (OpenAI): intelligence 37.30, $320GPT-5.6 Luna (Medium) (OpenAI): intelligence 25.00, $44.3GPT-5.6 Luna (Non-reasoning) (OpenAI): intelligence 15.50, $23.0GPT-5.6 Luna (Xhigh) (OpenAI): intelligence 34.60, $179GPT-5.6 Sol (High) (OpenAI): intelligence 42.30, $1487GPT-5.6 Sol (Low) (OpenAI): intelligence 33.50, $637GPT-5.6 Sol (Max) (OpenAI): intelligence 47.00, $3465GPT-5.6 Sol (Medium) (OpenAI): intelligence 39.20, $997GPT-5.6 Sol (Xhigh) (OpenAI): intelligence 44.00, $2082GPT-5.6 Terra (High) (OpenAI): intelligence 34.20, $768GPT-5.6 Terra (Low) (OpenAI): intelligence 27.50, $350GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) (OpenAI): intelligence 42.10, $2501GPT-5.6 Terra (Medium) (OpenAI): intelligence 30.10, $447GPT-5.6 Terra (Non-reasoning) (OpenAI): intelligence 20.80, $256GPT-5.6 Terra (Xhigh) (OpenAI): intelligence 38.00, $1187GPT-6 Astra (High) (OpenAI): intelligence 50.90, $2925GPT-6 Astra (Low) (OpenAI): intelligence 45.80, $1537GPT-6 Astra (Max) (OpenAI): intelligence 52.70, $5324GPT-6 Astra (Medium) (OpenAI): intelligence 49.60, $2434GPT-6 Astra (Xhigh) (OpenAI): intelligence 52.40, $3803GPT-6 Luna (Non-reasoning) (OpenAI): intelligence 18.50, $19.2GPT-6 Sol (High) (OpenAI): intelligence 42.40, $605GPT-6 Sol (Low) (OpenAI): intelligence 34.20, $269GPT-6 Sol (Max) (OpenAI): intelligence 47.60, $1536GPT-6 Sol (Medium) (OpenAI): intelligence 39.80, $416GPT-6 Sol (Non-reasoning) (OpenAI): intelligence 28.50, $449GPT-6 Sol (Xhigh) (OpenAI): intelligence 44.20, $855GPT-6.1 Sol (Low) (OpenAI): intelligence 42.10, $250gpt-oss-120b (High) (OpenAI): intelligence 11.60, $123gpt-oss-20b (High) (OpenAI): intelligence 9.00, $28.8Granite 4.2 30B (IBM): intelligence 12.70, $111Granite 4.2 3B (IBM): intelligence 9.10, $14.9Granite 4.2 8B (IBM): intelligence 11.10, $53.1Grok 4.3 (High) (SpaceXAI): intelligence 24.90, $363Grok 4.3 (Non-reasoning) (SpaceXAI): intelligence 14.00, $250Grok 4.5 (High) (SpaceXAI): intelligence 38.80, $1244Grok 4.6 (High) (SpaceXAI): intelligence 44.30, $1963Grok 4.6 (Low) (SpaceXAI): intelligence 35.10, $614Grok 4.6 (Medium) (SpaceXAI): intelligence 42.80, $1557Grok 4.6 (Xhigh) (SpaceXAI): intelligence 44.20, $2242Grok 4.7 (High) (SpaceXAI): intelligence 46.30, $3881Grok 4.7 (Low) (SpaceXAI): intelligence 42.20, $1631Grok 4.7 (Xhigh) (SpaceXAI): intelligence 46.40, $4967Hy3 (Tencent): intelligence 25.30, $150Inkling Small (Thinking Machines): intelligence 25.70, $241Kimi K2.7 Code (Kimi): intelligence 25.80, $993Kimi K3 (Low) (Kimi): intelligence 30.10, $1190Kimi K3 (Max) (Kimi): intelligence 43.60, $3658Ling 3.1 Flash (InclusionAI): intelligence 41.10, $1015Ling 3.1 Flash 1019 (InclusionAI): intelligence 43.90, $1552Llama 4 Maverick (Meta): intelligence 9.30, $44.0Llama 4 Scout (Meta): intelligence 6.50, $73.6LongCat 2.0 (LongCat): intelligence 19.10, $545Mercury 2 (Inception): intelligence 10.80, $105Mercury 2.5 (Inception): intelligence 12.30, $218MiMo-V2.5 (Xiaomi): intelligence 21.80, $61.9MiMo-V2.5-Pro (Reasoning) (Xiaomi): intelligence 26.00, $231MiniMax-M3 (MiniMax): intelligence 29.20, $538MiniMax-M3.1-Flash (MiniMax): intelligence 42.70, $283Ministral 3 14B (Mistral): intelligence 6.00, $37.6Ministral 3 3B (Mistral): intelligence 4.80, $12.2Ministral 3 8B (Mistral): intelligence 5.50, $27.5Mistral Large 3 (Mistral): intelligence 9.30, $46.4Mistral Large 4 Preview (Mistral): intelligence 38.40, $1608Mistral Medium 3.5 (Mistral): intelligence 14.20, $1264Mistral Small 3.1 (Mistral): intelligence 7.10, $27.8Mistral Small 3.2 (Mistral): intelligence 7.00, $122Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) (Mistral): intelligence 11.30, $42.5Muse Glimmer (High) (Meta): intelligence 17.50, $146Muse Spark 1.1 (Xhigh) (Meta): intelligence 33.70, $1737Muse Spark 1.2 (Xhigh) (Meta): intelligence 39.60, $1385Muse Spark 1.3 (Max) (Meta): intelligence 48.10, $2000Muse Spark 1.3 (Xhigh) (Meta): intelligence 45.10, $1655Muse Spark Open (Xhigh) (Meta): intelligence 38.90, $1185Muse Wonder (Max) (Meta): intelligence 52.40, $5787Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) (NVIDIA): intelligence 12.80, $1319Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B (Reasoning) (NVIDIA): intelligence 22.90, $697Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (NVIDIA): intelligence 12.90, $92.8Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (NVIDIA): intelligence 26.50, $286NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B (Reasoning) (NVIDIA): intelligence 8.90, $63.7Qwen3 Coder Next (Alibaba): intelligence 9.20, $405Qwen3.5 122B A10B (Reasoning) (Alibaba): intelligence 15.60, $661Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Reasoning) (Alibaba): intelligence 18.40, $941Qwen3.5 9B (Reasoning) (Alibaba): intelligence 11.20, $329Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) (Alibaba): intelligence 21.40, $1145Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) (Alibaba): intelligence 18.20, $896Qwen3.7 Max (Alibaba): intelligence 29.50, $2277Qwen3.7 Plus (Alibaba): intelligence 25.20, $428Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B (Alibaba): intelligence 39.90, $2632Qwen3.8 27B (Low) (Alibaba): intelligence 26.20, $1060Qwen3.8 27B (Medium) (Alibaba): intelligence 27.60, $1165Qwen3.8 27B (Non-reasoning) (Alibaba): intelligence 20.20, $2022Qwen3.8 27B (Xhigh) (Alibaba): intelligence 33.70, $1336Qwen3.8 Max (Alibaba): intelligence 40.20, $3172Qwen3.8 Max (0902) (Alibaba): intelligence 45.40, $4935Qwen3.8-Flash-Next (Alibaba): intelligence 39.80, $363Ring-2.6-1T (InclusionAI): intelligence 16.60, $576Solar Mini 4 (Upstage): intelligence 24.10, $502Solar Pro 3 (Upstage): intelligence 7.80, $159Solar Pro 4 (Upstage): intelligence 26.60, $737Step 5 Preview (StepFun): intelligence 43.70, $1190Trinity Large Thinking (Arcee AI): intelligence 10.80, $233GPT-6 Luna (Low) (OpenAI): intelligence 21.50, $10.6GPT-6 Luna (Medium) (OpenAI): intelligence 29.90, $31.2GPT-6 Luna (High) (OpenAI): intelligence 32.90, $47.9Claude Haiku 5.5 (Medium) (Anthropic): intelligence 34.50, $56.4GPT-6 Luna (Xhigh) (OpenAI): intelligence 34.60, $66.8Claude Haiku 5.5 (High) (Anthropic): intelligence 37.80, $94.1MiMo-V2.6-Flash (Xiaomi): intelligence 37.90, $110GPT-6 Luna (Max) (OpenAI): intelligence 38.10, $122Claude Haiku 5.5 (Xhigh) (Anthropic): intelligence 41.20, $158MiMo-V2.6-Pro (Xiaomi): intelligence 46.30, $207GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) (OpenAI): intelligence 47.80, $361GPT-6.1 Sol (High) (OpenAI): intelligence 50.20, $521GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) (OpenAI): intelligence 51.00, $662GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) (OpenAI): intelligence 51.80, $1082Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 53.60, $2172Kimi K3.1 Pro (Kimi): intelligence 55.10, $3117Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 56.00, $4057Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback) (Anthropic): intelligence 57.60, $8708Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) (Kimi): intelligence 27.00, $1528Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning)GPT-6 Luna (Low)GPT-6.1 Sol (Max)Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback)Claude Opus 5.5 (Max, Default Fallback)

1 of 2 effort levels plotted. The remaining levels lack intelligence or benchmark cost data.

Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning)Same release, other effort levelsToday's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Up and left is better. Dotted line: today's Pareto frontier. Hover a point for its numbers, click it for its page.

Intelligence: Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index. Cost: total cost to run that benchmark, so reasoning tokens count. API id: kimi-k2-6.

Matchup

Compare head to head

Suggested: what beats it, its effort levels, and frontier models near its price.

Compare Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) with measured models

Release

What the Kimi K2.6 release did to the frontier on 2026-04-20

1 of 2 effort levels reached the frontier at launch (Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning)). Impact 0.09, #39 of 46 releases this past year.

Release page: launch-day frontier and every effort level

Deciding

Should you use Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning)?

Should you use Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning)?

Only when it fits your setup: GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) is at least as smart for the same money or less, so Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) is off the value frontier today.

What is better and cheaper than Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning)?

GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) — at least as smart for the same money or less.

How much does Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) cost?

$0.95/$4.00 in/out per 1M tokens, and $1528 to run the full Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, the honest all-in number for reasoning models.

Is Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) on the Pareto frontier?

No: GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) beats it on intelligence, cost, or both.

Frontier membership by axis pair

Other axis pairs where Kimi K2.6 (Reasoning) is Pareto-optimal.

Y axisX axisOn the frontier
AA intelligence indexAA total cost to run (USD)
AA intelligence indexEnd-to-end total seconds
AA intelligence indexOutput speed tokens/sec
Agents: Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/models/kimi-k2-6 · Markdown: /api/v1/models/kimi-k2-6?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill