Kimi K2.5 vs MiniCPM5-1B
Head-to-head comparison across 3benchmark categories. Overall scores shown here use BenchLM's provisional ranking lane.
Verdict
Kimi K2.5 leads for most workloads.
Based on BenchLM composite scores, July 2026.
Kimi K2.5
63
MiniCPM5-1B
36
Verified leaderboard positions: Kimi K2.5 #27 · MiniCPM5-1B unranked
Pick Kimi K2.5 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. MiniCPM5-1B only becomes the better choice if you want the stronger reasoning-first profile.
Category Radar
Head-to-Head by Category
Category Breakdown
| Benchmark | Kimi K2.5 | Δ | MiniCPM5-1B |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inst. Following | 93.9 | ← 35.4 | 58.5 |
| Math | 60.6 | ← 27.5 | 33.1 |
| Knowledge | 57.2 | ← 13.1 | 44.1 |
| Agentic | 55.0 | — | — |
| Coding | 65.5 | — | — |
| Reasoning | 61.0 | — | — |
| Multilingual | 82.3 | — | — |
| Multimodal | 78.5 | — | — |
Operational Comparison
Kimi K2.5
MiniCPM5-1B
$0.6 / $3
N/A
45 t/s
N/A
2.38s
N/A
256K
131K
Quick Verdict
Pick Kimi K2.5 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. MiniCPM5-1B only becomes the better choice if you want the stronger reasoning-first profile.
Kimi K2.5 is clearly ahead on the provisional aggregate, 63 to 36. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.
Kimi K2.5's sharpest advantage is in instruction following, where it averages 93.9 against 58.5. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is HMMT Feb 2026, 87.1% to 25.8%.
MiniCPM5-1B is the reasoning model in the pair, while Kimi K2.5 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. Kimi K2.5 gives you the larger context window at 256K, compared with 131K for MiniCPM5-1B.
Benchmark Deep Dive
Frequently Asked Questions (4)
Which is better, Kimi K2.5 or MiniCPM5-1B?
Kimi K2.5 is ahead on BenchLM's provisional leaderboard, 63 to 36. The biggest single separator in this matchup is HMMT Feb 2026, where the scores are 87.1% and 25.8%.
Which is better for knowledge tasks, Kimi K2.5 or MiniCPM5-1B?
Kimi K2.5 has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 57.2 versus 44.1. Inside this category, GPQA-D is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Which is better for math, Kimi K2.5 or MiniCPM5-1B?
Kimi K2.5 has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 60.6 versus 33.1. Inside this category, HMMT Feb 2026 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Which is better for instruction following, Kimi K2.5 or MiniCPM5-1B?
Kimi K2.5 has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 93.9 versus 58.5. 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.
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