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Kimi K2.5 vs o3-mini

Head-to-head comparison across 3benchmark categories. Overall scores shown here use BenchLM's provisional ranking lane.

Kimi K2.5

64

VS

o3-mini

56

1 categoriesvs1 categories

Verified leaderboard positions: Kimi K2.5 #11 · o3-mini unranked

Pick Kimi K2.5 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. o3-mini only becomes the better choice if knowledge is the priority or you want the stronger reasoning-first profile.

Category Radar

Head-to-Head by Category

Category Breakdown

Coding

Kimi K2.5
64.2vs49.3

+14.9 difference

Knowledge

o3-mini
65.1vs77.2

+12.1 difference

Inst. Following

Tie
93.9vs93.9

Operational Comparison

Kimi K2.5

o3-mini

Price (per 1M tokens)

$0.6 / $3

$1.1 / $4.4

Speed

45 t/s

160 t/s

Latency (TTFT)

2.38s

7.12s

Context Window

256K

200K

Quick Verdict

Pick Kimi K2.5 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. o3-mini only becomes the better choice if knowledge is the priority or you want the stronger reasoning-first profile.

Kimi K2.5 is clearly ahead on the provisional aggregate, 64 to 56. 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 coding, where it averages 64.2 against 49.3. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is SWE-bench Verified, 76.8% to 49.3%. o3-mini does hit back in knowledge, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.

o3-mini is also the more expensive model on tokens at $1.10 input / $4.40 output per 1M tokens, versus $0.60 input / $3.00 output per 1M tokens for Kimi K2.5. o3-mini 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 200K for o3-mini.

Benchmark Deep Dive

Frequently Asked Questions (4)

Which is better, Kimi K2.5 or o3-mini?

Kimi K2.5 is ahead on BenchLM's provisional leaderboard, 64 to 56. The biggest single separator in this matchup is SWE-bench Verified, where the scores are 76.8% and 49.3%.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, Kimi K2.5 or o3-mini?

o3-mini has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 77.2 versus 65.1. Inside this category, GPQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, Kimi K2.5 or o3-mini?

Kimi K2.5 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 64.2 versus 49.3. Inside this category, SWE-bench Verified is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for instruction following, Kimi K2.5 or o3-mini?

Kimi K2.5 and o3-mini are effectively tied for instruction following here, both landing at 93.9 on average.

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
o3-mini
API / mo$4,125
Self-host / moN/A
Break-even
Proprietary model — self-hosting not applicable.
Model the full break-even

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Last updated: April 24, 2026

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