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Model comparison

Kimi K2.6 vs Nemotron 3 Ultra

Data verified

Head-to-head evidence from 31 shared benchmark results across 6 categories. Overall scores shown here use the public BenchAlign v5 ranking lane.

Kimi K2.6
Moonshot AI
57.04/100
Margin
3.0pts
winning →
60/100
2 category wins1 category wins

Verified leaderboard positions: Kimi K2.6 #11; Nemotron 3 Ultra #24

BenchAlign evidence: Kimi K2.6 estimated; Nemotron 3 Ultra not scored. Intervals and evidence labels describe ranking uncertainty, not a guarantee for a specific workload.

Evidence parity. Kimi K2.6 and Nemotron 3 Ultra share 31 comparable benchmark results. 3 of 8 categories are comparable. 27 results are unique to Kimi K2.6; 8 to Nemotron 3 Ultra.

Updated July 16, 2026
Shared results
31
Kimi K2.6 only
27
Nemotron 3 Ultra only
8
Comparable categories
3 / 8

Pick Kimi K2.6 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Nemotron 3 Ultra only becomes the better choice if knowledge is the priority or you want the cheaper token bill.

Confidence note. This is a partial-evidence comparison with 31 shared benchmark results across 6 evidence categories; 3 of 8 categories currently have scoreable aggregates for both models. Treat the verdict as directional until coverage is more balanced.

Why this result

Kimi K2.6 is clearly ahead on the provisional aggregate, 71 to 60. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

Kimi K2.6's sharpest advantage is in agentic, where it averages 73.5 against 51.3. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is BrowseComp, 83.2% to 44.4%. Nemotron 3 Ultra does hit back in knowledge, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.

Kimi K2.6 is also the more expensive model on tokens at $0.95 input / $4.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $0.00 input / $0.00 output per 1M tokens for Nemotron 3 Ultra. That is roughly Infinityx on output cost alone. Nemotron 3 Ultra gives you the larger context window at 1M, compared with 256K for Kimi K2.6.

Category breakdown

Exact category averages are shown below. Not measured means BenchLM does not have enough sourced public coverage for that model and category.

Category scores and score margins for Kimi K2.6 and Nemotron 3 Ultra
CategoryKimi K2.6ΔNemotron 3 Ultra
AgenticKimi K2.673.5Margin← 22.2Nemotron 3 Ultra51.3
KnowledgeKimi K2.642.2Margin→ 12.0Nemotron 3 Ultra54.2
CodingKimi K2.664.4Margin← 6.1Nemotron 3 Ultra58.3
ReasoningKimi K2.6Not measuredMarginNo overlapNemotron 3 Ultra61.9
MathKimi K2.667.1MarginNo overlapNemotron 3 UltraNot measured
MultilingualKimi K2.6Not measuredMarginNo overlapNemotron 3 Ultra83.0
MultimodalKimi K2.679.8MarginNo overlapNemotron 3 UltraNot measured
Inst. FollowingKimi K2.6Not measuredMarginNo overlapNemotron 3 Ultra81.7

Decisive benchmark drivers

The largest measured benchmark gaps in this matchup, with exact reported values.

More
A · Kimi K2.6B · Nemotron 3 Ultra

  1. BrowseComp

    Agentic
    Source ↗
    A 83.2%B 44.4%
    Winner: Kimi K2.6Δ 38.8
    BrowseComp: Kimi K2.6 scored 83.2%; Nemotron 3 Ultra scored 44.4%. Kimi K2.6 wins this benchmark.

  2. Terminal-Bench 2.0

    Agentic
    Source ↗
    A 66.7%B 56.4%
    Winner: Kimi K2.6Δ 10.3
    Terminal-Bench 2.0: Kimi K2.6 scored 66.7%; Nemotron 3 Ultra scored 56.4%. Kimi K2.6 wins this benchmark.

  3. SWE-bench Verified

    Coding
    Source ↗
    A 80.2%B 71.9%
    Winner: Kimi K2.6Δ 8.3
    SWE-bench Verified: Kimi K2.6 scored 80.2%; Nemotron 3 Ultra scored 71.9%. Kimi K2.6 wins this benchmark.

  4. HLE

    Knowledge
    Source ↗
    A 34.7%B 26.7%
    Winner: Kimi K2.6Δ 8
    HLE: Kimi K2.6 scored 34.7%; Nemotron 3 Ultra scored 26.7%. Kimi K2.6 wins this benchmark.

  5. SciCode

    Coding
    Source ↗
    A 52.2%B 44.6%
    Winner: Kimi K2.6Δ 7.6
    SciCode: Kimi K2.6 scored 52.2%; Nemotron 3 Ultra scored 44.6%. Kimi K2.6 wins this benchmark.

Operational comparison

Runtime and commercial metrics are compared only when both models have a complete sourced value.

MetricKimi K2.6Nemotron 3 UltraComparison
Input / output priceUSD per 1M tokensKimi K2.6$0.95 input / $4 outputNemotron 3 Ultra$0 input / $0 outputNemotron 3 Ultra has the lower combined listed price.
Generation speedtokens per secondKimi K2.6Not availableNemotron 3 UltraNot availableA complete speed comparison is not available.
First-answer latencyseconds to first tokenKimi K2.6Not availableNemotron 3 UltraNot availableA complete latency comparison is not available.
Context windowmaximum listed tokensKimi K2.6256KNemotron 3 Ultra1MNemotron 3 Ultra lists the larger context window.

Benchmark Deep Dive

AgenticKimi K2.6 wins
BenchmarkKimi K2.6Nemotron 3 UltraResult
Terminal-Bench 2.0Source 66.7%56.4%Kimi K2.6 leads
BrowseCompSource 83.2%44.4%Kimi K2.6 leads
OSWorld-VerifiedSource 73.1%—Not comparable
ToolathlonSource 50%—Not comparable
MCP AtlasSource 55.9%—Not comparable
Claw-EvalSource 62.3%—Not comparable
DeepSearchQASource 92.5%—Not comparable
WideResearchSource 80.8%—Not comparable
AA Agentic IndexSource 30.3%27.4%Kimi K2.6 leads
τ²-bench resultsSource 95.9%83.3%Kimi K2.6 leads
GDPval-AASource 34.5%33.2%Kimi K2.6 leads
GDPval-AASource 11911164Kimi K2.6 leads
APEX-Agents-AASource 28.5%—Not comparable
Gert LabsSource 56.82%—Not comparable
ResearchClawBenchSource 18.0%—Not comparable
OSWorld 2.0Source 4.6%—Not comparable
AA BriefcaseSource 815870Nemotron 3 Ultra leads
AA EnterpriseOps-GymSource 38.5%28.9%Kimi K2.6 leads
AA Harvey LABSource 0.0%3.3%Nemotron 3 Ultra leads
AA ITBenchSource 31.2%—Not comparable
AA Tau3 BankingSource 20.6%—Not comparable
PinchBenchSource —90.0%Not comparable
τ³-bench resultsSource —70.9%Not comparable
HLE w/ toolsSource —37.4%Not comparable
CodingKimi K2.6 wins
BenchmarkKimi K2.6Nemotron 3 UltraResult
SWE-bench VerifiedSource 80.2%71.9%Kimi K2.6 leads
LiveCodeBench v6Source 89.6%89.0%Kimi K2.6 leads
SWE-bench ProSource 58.6%—Not comparable
SWE MultilingualSource 76.7%67.7%Kimi K2.6 leads
SciCodeSource 52.2%44.6%Kimi K2.6 leads
Terminal-Bench 2.0Source 66.7%56.4%Kimi K2.6 leads
Vibe Code BenchSource 37.89%—Not comparable
cursorBench31Source 47.6%—Not comparable
AA Coding IndexSource 61.8%49.3%Kimi K2.6 leads
Terminal-Bench HardSource 43.9%36.4%Kimi K2.6 leads
AA-SciCodeSource 53.5%39.9%Kimi K2.6 leads
AA Terminal-Bench 2.1Source 65.9%—Not comparable
Reasoning
BenchmarkKimi K2.6Nemotron 3 UltraResult
AA-LCRSource 69.7%67.0%Kimi K2.6 leads
CritPtSource 8.0%3.1%Kimi K2.6 leads
LongBench v2Source —61.9%Not comparable
KnowledgeNemotron 3 Ultra wins
BenchmarkKimi K2.6Nemotron 3 UltraResult
GPQASource 90.5%87%Kimi K2.6 leads
GPQA-DSource 90.5%87.0%Kimi K2.6 leads
HLESource 34.7%26.7%Kimi K2.6 leads
Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexSource 44.2%37.8%Kimi K2.6 leads
AA-GPQA DiamondSource 91.1%86.7%Kimi K2.6 leads
AA-HLESource 35.9%26.6%Kimi K2.6 leads
AA-Omniscience IndexSource 6.4%-0.8%Kimi K2.6 leads
AA-Omniscience AccuracySource 32.8%21.6%Kimi K2.6 leads
AA-Omniscience Hallucination RateSource 39.3%28.5%Nemotron 3 Ultra leads
AA Openness IndexSource 33.3%83.3%Nemotron 3 Ultra leads
HLE w/o toolsSource —26.7%Not comparable
MMLU-ProSource —86.8%Not comparable
Math
BenchmarkKimi K2.6Nemotron 3 UltraResult
AIME26Source 96.4%—Not comparable
HMMT Feb 2026Source 92.7%—Not comparable
MMAnswerBenchSource 86.0%—Not comparable
FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3)Source 38.966%—Not comparable
FrontierMath v2 (Tier 4)Source 14.580%—Not comparable
Multilingual
BenchmarkKimi K2.6Nemotron 3 UltraResult
MMLU-ProXSource —83%Not comparable
Multimodal
BenchmarkKimi K2.6Nemotron 3 UltraResult
MMMU-ProSource 79.4%—Not comparable
MMMU-Pro w/ PythonSource 80.1%—Not comparable
CharXivSource 80.4%—Not comparable
MathVisionSource 87.4%—Not comparable
V*Source 96.9%—Not comparable
AA-MMMU-ProSource 79.4%—Not comparable
Design Arena WebsiteSource 13101132Kimi K2.6 leads
Inst. Following
BenchmarkKimi K2.6Nemotron 3 UltraResult
AA-IFBenchSource 76.0%81.4%Nemotron 3 Ultra leads
IFBenchSource —81.7%Not comparable
Frequently Asked Questions (4)

Which is better, Kimi K2.6 or Nemotron 3 Ultra?

Kimi K2.6 is ahead on BenchLM's provisional leaderboard, 71 to 60. The biggest single separator in this matchup is BrowseComp, where the scores are 83.2% and 44.4%.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, Kimi K2.6 or Nemotron 3 Ultra?

Nemotron 3 Ultra has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 54.2 versus 42.2. Inside this category, AA Openness Index is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, Kimi K2.6 or Nemotron 3 Ultra?

Kimi K2.6 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 64.4 versus 58.3. Inside this category, AA-SciCode is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for agentic tasks, Kimi K2.6 or Nemotron 3 Ultra?

Kimi K2.6 has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 73.5 versus 51.3. Inside this category, AA Briefcase is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Self-host vs API cost

Estimates at 50,000 req/day · 1000 tokens/req average.

Kimi K2.6
API / mo$3,713
Self-host / mo$18,221
Break-even326M/day
Nemotron 3 Ultra
API / mo$0
Self-host / moNot listed
Break-even—
Proprietary model — self-hosting not applicable.
Model the full break-even

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Last updated: July 16, 2026

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