DeepSeek V3 vs Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning)

Side-by-side benchmark comparison across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, and math workflows.

Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning) is clearly ahead on the aggregate, 47 to 25. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning)'s sharpest advantage is in reasoning, where it averages 86.9 against 24.9. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is SimpleQA, 24.9% to 88%.

Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning) is the reasoning model in the pair, while DeepSeek V3 is not. That usually helps on harder chain-of-thought-heavy tests, but it can also mean more latency and more token spend in real use.

Quick Verdict

Pick Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning) if you want the stronger benchmark profile. DeepSeek V3 only becomes the better choice if you would rather avoid the extra latency and token burn of a reasoning model.

Agentic

Coming soon

Benchmark data for this category is coming soon.

Coding

Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning)

DeepSeek V3

42

Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning)

84

42%
SWE-bench Verified
Coming soon
Coming soon
HumanEval
84%

Multimodal & Grounded

Coming soon

Benchmark data for this category is coming soon.

Reasoning

Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning)

DeepSeek V3

24.9

Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning)

86.9

24.9%
SimpleQA
88%
Coming soon
MuSR
86%

Knowledge

Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning)

DeepSeek V3

69.6

Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning)

89

59.1%
GPQA
90%
88.5%
MMLU
92%
75.9%
MMLU-Pro
Coming soon
Coming soon
SuperGPQA
88%
Coming soon
OpenBookQA
86%

Instruction Following

Coming soon

Benchmark data for this category is coming soon.

Multilingual

Coming soon

Benchmark data for this category is coming soon.

Mathematics

Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning)

DeepSeek V3

90.2

Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning)

93

39.2%
AIME 2024
96%
90.2%
MATH-500
Coming soon
Coming soon
AIME 2023
94%
Coming soon
AIME 2025
95%
Coming soon
HMMT Feb 2023
90%
Coming soon
HMMT Feb 2024
92%
Coming soon
HMMT Feb 2025
91%
Coming soon
BRUMO 2025
93%

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, DeepSeek V3 or Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning)?

Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning) is ahead overall, 47 to 25. The biggest single separator in this matchup is SimpleQA, where the scores are 24.9% and 88%.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, DeepSeek V3 or Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning)?

Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning) has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 89 versus 69.6. Inside this category, GPQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, DeepSeek V3 or Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning)?

Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning) has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 84 versus 42. DeepSeek V3 stays close enough that the answer can still flip depending on your workload.

Which is better for math, DeepSeek V3 or Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning)?

Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning) has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 93 versus 90.2. Inside this category, AIME 2024 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for reasoning, DeepSeek V3 or Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning)?

Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning) has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 86.9 versus 24.9. Inside this category, SimpleQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 17, 2026

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