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Model comparison

Kimi K2.5 vs Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct

Data verified

Head-to-head evidence from 3 shared benchmark results across 2 categories. Overall scores shown here use the public BenchAlign v5 ranking lane.

Moonshot AI
59.66/100
No comparison
2 category wins0 category wins

Public leaderboard positions: Kimi K2.5 #54 (Supported); Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct unranked (Not scored). Intervals and evidence labels describe ranking uncertainty, not a guarantee for a specific workload.

Evidence parity. Kimi K2.5 and Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct share 3 comparable benchmark results. 2 of 8 categories are comparable. 60 results are unique to Kimi K2.5; 2 to Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct.

Updated July 23, 2026
Shared results
3
Kimi K2.5 only
60
Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct only
2
Comparable categories
2 / 8

Treat this as a split decision. Kimi K2.5 makes more sense if instruction following is the priority or you need the larger 256K context window; Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct is the better fit if its strengths line up with your actual workload.

Confidence note. This is a partial-evidence comparison with 3 shared benchmark results across 2 evidence categories; 2 of 8 categories currently have scoreable aggregates for both models. Treat the verdict as directional until coverage is more balanced.

Why this result

Kimi K2.5 and Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct finish on the same BenchAlign overall score, so this is less about a single winner and more about where the edge shows up. The BenchAlign headline says tie; the benchmark table is where the real choice happens.

Kimi K2.5 gives you the larger context window at 256K, compared with 128K for Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct.

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 K2.5 and Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct
CategoryKimi K2.5ΔMellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct
Inst. FollowingKimi K2.593.9Margin 18.1Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct75.8
KnowledgeKimi K2.556.9Margin 16.0Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct40.9
AgenticKimi K2.555.0MarginNo overlapMellum2-12B-A2.5B-InstructNot measured
CodingKimi K2.559.4MarginNo overlapMellum2-12B-A2.5B-InstructNot measured
ReasoningKimi K2.561.0MarginNo overlapMellum2-12B-A2.5B-InstructNot measured
MathKimi K2.560.6MarginNo overlapMellum2-12B-A2.5B-InstructNot measured
MultilingualKimi K2.582.3MarginNo overlapMellum2-12B-A2.5B-InstructNot measured
MultimodalKimi K2.578.5MarginNo overlapMellum2-12B-A2.5B-InstructNot measured

Decisive benchmark drivers

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

More
A · Kimi K2.5B · Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct
  1. GPQA

    Knowledge
    Source ↗
    A 87.6%B 40.9%
    Winner: Kimi K2.5Δ 46.7
    GPQA: Kimi K2.5 scored 87.6%; Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct scored 40.9%. Kimi K2.5 wins this benchmark.
  2. IFEval

    Inst. Following
    Source ↗
    A 93.9%B 75.8%
    Winner: Kimi K2.5Δ 18.1
    IFEval: Kimi K2.5 scored 93.9%; Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct scored 75.8%. Kimi K2.5 wins this benchmark.

Operational comparison

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

MetricKimi K2.5Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-InstructComparison
Input / output priceUSD per 1M tokensKimi K2.5$0.6 input / $3 outputMellum2-12B-A2.5B-InstructNot availableA complete price comparison is not available.
Generation speedtokens per secondKimi K2.545 tok/sMellum2-12B-A2.5B-InstructNot availableA complete speed comparison is not available.
First-answer latencyseconds to first tokenKimi K2.52.38 sMellum2-12B-A2.5B-InstructNot availableA complete latency comparison is not available.
Context windowmaximum listed tokensKimi K2.5256KMellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct128KKimi K2.5 lists the larger context window.

Benchmark Deep Dive

Agentic
BenchmarkKimi K2.5Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-InstructResult
Terminal-Bench 2.0Source 50.8%Not comparable
BrowseCompSource 60.6%Not comparable
Claw-EvalSource 52.3%Not comparable
QwenClawBenchSource 54.3%Not comparable
τ³-bench resultsSource 65.7%Not comparable
DeepSearchQASource 77.1%Not comparable
DeepPlanningSource 14.4%Not comparable
ToolathlonSource 27.8%Not comparable
MCP AtlasSource 29.5%Not comparable
MCP-TasksSource 59.1%Not comparable
WideResearchSource 72.7%Not comparable
τ²-bench resultsSource 95.9%Not comparable
APEX-Agents-AASource 11.5%Not comparable
Gert LabsSource 45.88%Not comparable
ResearchClawBenchSource 14.0%Not comparable
JobBenchSource 8.7%Not comparable
AA Agentic IndexSource 21.7%Not comparable
GDPval-AASource 25.4%Not comparable
GDPval-AASource 1009Not comparable
BFCL v4Source 44.2%Not comparable
Coding
BenchmarkKimi K2.5Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-InstructResult
SWE-bench VerifiedSource 76.8%Not comparable
SWE-bench Verified*Source 70.8%Not comparable
LiveCodeBench v6Source 85.0%Not comparable
SWE-bench ProSource 50.7%Not comparable
SWE MultilingualSource 73%Not comparable
SWE-RebenchSource 58.5%Not comparable
React Native EvalsSource 77.2%Not comparable
SciCodeSource 48.7%Not comparable
AA-SciCodeSource 49.0%Not comparable
AA Coding IndexSource 46.8%Not comparable
Reasoning
BenchmarkKimi K2.5Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-InstructResult
LongBench v2Source 61%Not comparable
AA-LCRSource 65.3%Not comparable
CritPtSource 3.1%Not comparable
KnowledgeKimi K2.5 wins
BenchmarkKimi K2.5Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-InstructResult
GPQASource 87.6%40.9%Kimi K2.5 leads
GPQA-DSource 87.6%40.9%Kimi K2.5 leads
SuperGPQASource 69.2%Not comparable
MMLU-ProSource 87.1%Not comparable
MMLU-Pro (Arcee)Source 87.1%Not comparable
HLESource 30.1%Not comparable
Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexSource 35.4%Not comparable
AA-GPQA DiamondSource 87.9%Not comparable
AA-HLESource 29.4%Not comparable
AA-Omniscience IndexSource -8.1%Not comparable
AA-Omniscience AccuracySource 34.3%Not comparable
AA-Omniscience Hallucination RateSource 64.6%Not comparable
MMLU-ReduxSource 78.1%Not comparable
Math
BenchmarkKimi K2.5Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-InstructResult
AIME 2025Source 96.1%Not comparable
AIME26Source 95.8%Not comparable
AIME25 (Arcee)Source 96.3%Not comparable
HMMT Feb 2025Source 95.4%Not comparable
HMMT Nov 2025Source 91.1%Not comparable
HMMT Feb 2026Source 87.1%Not comparable
MMAnswerBenchSource 81.8%Not comparable
FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3)Source 27.900%Not comparable
FrontierMath v2 (Tier 4)Source 4.200%Not comparable
Multilingual
BenchmarkKimi K2.5Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-InstructResult
MMLU-ProXSource 82.3%Not comparable
NOVA-63Source 56.0%Not comparable
Multimodal
BenchmarkKimi K2.5Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-InstructResult
MMMU-ProSource 78.5%Not comparable
Video-MMESource 87.4%Not comparable
MMVUSource 80.4%Not comparable
VideoMMMUSource 86.6%Not comparable
AA-MMMU-ProSource 75.4%Not comparable
Design Arena WebsiteSource 1279Not comparable
Inst. FollowingKimi K2.5 wins
BenchmarkKimi K2.5Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-InstructResult
IFEvalSource 93.9%75.8%Kimi K2.5 leads
AA-IFBenchSource 70.2%Not comparable
Frequently Asked Questions (3)

Which is better, Kimi K2.5 or Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct?

Kimi K2.5 and Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct are tied on the BenchAlign overall score, so the right pick depends on which category matters most for your use case.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, Kimi K2.5 or Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct?

Kimi K2.5 has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 56.9 versus 40.9. Inside this category, GPQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for instruction following, Kimi K2.5 or Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct?

Kimi K2.5 has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 93.9 versus 75.8. Inside this category, IFEval 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 K2.5
API / mo$2,700
Self-host / mo$5,221
Break-even132M/day
Mellum2-12B-A2.5B-Instruct
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 23, 2026

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