Head-to-head comparison across 4benchmark categories. Overall scores shown here use BenchLM's provisional ranking lane.
Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning)
76
MAI-Thinking-1
65
Verified leaderboard positions: Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning) unranked · MAI-Thinking-1 #23
Pick Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning) if you want the stronger benchmark profile. MAI-Thinking-1 only becomes the better choice if mathematics is the priority or you need the larger 256K context window.
Agentic
+8.6 difference
Coding
+5.8 difference
Knowledge
+17.4 difference
Math
+0.9 difference
Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning)
MAI-Thinking-1
$0.6 / $3
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
128K
256K
Pick Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning) if you want the stronger benchmark profile. MAI-Thinking-1 only becomes the better choice if mathematics is the priority or you need the larger 256K context window.
Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning) is clearly ahead on the provisional aggregate, 76 to 65. 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 knowledge, where it averages 87.3 against 69.9. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is Terminal-Bench 2.0, 50.8% to 46%. MAI-Thinking-1 does hit back in mathematics, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.
MAI-Thinking-1 gives you the larger context window at 256K, compared with 128K for Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning).
Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning) is ahead on BenchLM's provisional leaderboard, 76 to 65. The biggest single separator in this matchup is Terminal-Bench 2.0, where the scores are 50.8% and 46%.
Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning) has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 87.3 versus 69.9. Inside this category, GPQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning) has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 76.8 versus 71. Inside this category, SWE-bench Verified is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
MAI-Thinking-1 has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 97 versus 96.1. Inside this category, AIME 2025 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Kimi K2.5 (Reasoning) has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 54.6 versus 46. Inside this category, Terminal-Bench 2.0 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
For engineers, researchers, and the plain curious — a weekly brief on new models, ranking shifts, and pricing changes.
Free. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.