# dots3-note Preview vs Kimi K3

> Side-by-side benchmark comparison for dots3-note Preview and Kimi K3 across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, multilingual, and math tasks.

- Canonical page: https://benchlm.ai/compare/dots3-note-preview-vs-kimi-k3
- Last updated: October 2, 2026

- Shared sourced benchmarks: 12
- HTML indexing: indexable
- Ranking lane: BenchAlign v5.8

## Quick Verdict

Kimi K3 leads by point estimate. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence. Choose using the category evidence and your own workload tests.

## Summary

- Kimi K3 has the higher overall point estimate 72.14 to 63.63. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence.
- The clearest category separation is in multimodal & grounded, where the averages are 67.2 for dots3-note Preview and 89.4 for Kimi K3.
- The biggest single benchmark swing is ARC-AGI-2 in Reasoning, with scores of 81.4% and 60.4%.
- dots3-note Preview is the cheaper option on output tokens, which matters if you expect large responses or heavy interactive use.
- Kimi K3 also has the larger context window at 1.05M.

## Model Snapshot

| Property | dots3-note Preview | Kimi K3 |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Creator | Dots Studio | Moonshot AI |
| Type | Open Weight | Pending |
| Reasoning | Reasoning | Reasoning |
| Context | 512K | 1.05M |
| Overall Score | 63.63 | 72.14 |
| Benchmarks Covered | 31 | 48 |
| Pricing (input/output) | $0.00 / $0.00 | $3.00 / $15.00 |

## Category Breakdown

### Agentic

- Winner: Directional only
- dots3-note Preview public-lane score: 56.7 (Estimated · #30/119)
- Kimi K3 public-lane score: 68.1 (Supported · #8/119)

| Benchmark | dots3-note Preview | Kimi K3 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| Claw-Eval | 73.4% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 75.1% | 88.3% | Kimi K3 |
| Toolathlon-Verified | 55.6% | 73.2% | Kimi K3 |
| skillsBench | 52.8% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| APEX-Agents | 30.8% | 37.6% | Kimi K3 |
| BrowseComp | 83.3% | 91.2% | Kimi K3 |
| HLE w/ tools | 52.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| DeepSearchQA | 92.1% | 95.0% | Kimi K3 |
| WideResearch | 78.9% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| MCP Atlas | Coming soon | 84.2% | Coming soon |
| AutomationBench | Coming soon | 30.8% | Coming soon |
| JobBench | Coming soon | 52.9% | Coming soon |
| SpreadsheetBench 2 | Coming soon | 34.8% | Coming soon |
| DECK-Bench | Coming soon | 73.5% | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals) | Coming soon | 80.9% | Coming soon |
| ApprenticeBench | Coming soon | 18% | Coming soon |

### Coding

- Winner: Not comparable
- dots3-note Preview public-lane score: Coming soon
- Kimi K3 public-lane score: 61.4 (Supported · #18/144)

| Benchmark | dots3-note Preview | Kimi K3 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| Codeforces | 3056.0 | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| LiveCodeBench v6 | 91.5% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 75.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| SWE-bench Verified | 78.4% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| SWE Multilingual | 75.7% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| SWE-bench Pro | 61% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| NL2Repo | 49.8% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| DeepSWE | Coming soon | 67.5% | Coming soon |
| CursorBench 3.2 | Coming soon | 60.8% | Coming soon |
| FrontierSWE | Coming soon | 81.2% | Coming soon |
| ProgramBench | Coming soon | 77.8% | Coming soon |
| Kimi Code Bench v2 | Coming soon | 72.9% | Coming soon |
| sweMarathon | Coming soon | 42% | Coming soon |
| PostTrain Bench | Coming soon | 36.6% | Coming soon |
| MLS-Bench Lite | Coming soon | 48.3% | Coming soon |
| VulcanBench v3 | Coming soon | 73.7% | Coming soon |
| OpenHarmony Bench | Coming soon | 57.3% | Coming soon |
| FrontierSWE v2 | Coming soon | 25.9% | Coming soon |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals) | Coming soon | 87.2% | Coming soon |
| SWE-bench (Vals) | Coming soon | 93.4% | Coming soon |
| PostTrainBench v1.1 | Coming soon | 32.0% | Coming soon |

### Reasoning

- Winner: Not comparable
- dots3-note Preview public-lane score: 72.8 (Unranked · 1 rankable row)
- Kimi K3 public-lane score: 65.8 (#18/27)

| Benchmark | dots3-note Preview | Kimi K3 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| ARC-AGI-2 | 81.4% | 60.4% | dots3-note Preview |
| ARC-AGI-1 | Coming soon | 94.50% | Coming soon |

### Multimodal & Grounded

- Winner: Not comparable
- dots3-note Preview public-lane score: 67.2 (Unranked · 10 rankable rows)
- Kimi K3 public-lane score: 89.4 (#1/49)

| Benchmark | dots3-note Preview | Kimi K3 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| SimpleVQA | 72.5% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| MMMU-Pro | 79.1% | 81.6% | Kimi K3 |
| MathVision | 87.7% | 94.3% | Kimi K3 |
| ZeroBench | 19.0% | 23.0% | Kimi K3 |
| CharXiv w/o tools | 83.1% | 84.8% | Kimi K3 |
| GDP.pdf (no tools) | 60.7% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| PerceptionBench | 53.4% | 58.5% | Kimi K3 |
| BabyVision | 50.0% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| MMVU | 79.9% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| VideoMMMU | 86.8% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| OfficeQA Pro | Coming soon | 63.3% | Coming soon |
| MMMU-Pro w/ Python | Coming soon | 83.4% | Coming soon |
| CharXiv | Coming soon | 91.3% | Coming soon |
| MathVision w/ Python | Coming soon | 97.8% | Coming soon |
| BabyVision w/ Python | Coming soon | 85.7% | Coming soon |
| ZeroBench w/ Python | Coming soon | 41.0% | Coming soon |
| WorldVQA ForceAnswer | Coming soon | 51.0% | Coming soon |
| OmniDocBench | Coming soon | 91.1% | Coming soon |

### Knowledge

- Winner: Not comparable
- dots3-note Preview public-lane score: Coming soon
- Kimi K3 public-lane score: 67.9 (Supported · #18/171)

| Benchmark | dots3-note Preview | Kimi K3 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| HLE | 52.6% | 56% | Kimi K3 |
| GPQA | Coming soon | 93.5% | Coming soon |
| GPQA-D | Coming soon | 93.5% | Coming soon |
| HLE w/o tools | Coming soon | 43.5% | Coming soon |
| GPQA Diamond (Vals) | Coming soon | 92.9% | Coming soon |
| MMLU-Pro (Vals) | Coming soon | 88.0% | Coming soon |

### Instruction Following

- Winner: Not comparable
- dots3-note Preview public-lane score: 84.5 (#39/125)
- Kimi K3 public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | dots3-note Preview | Kimi K3 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| IFBench | 80.4% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| IFEval | 93.9% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Gray Swan IPI (15 attempts) | Coming soon | 52.7% | Coming soon |

### Mathematics

- Winner: Not comparable
- dots3-note Preview public-lane score: Coming soon
- Kimi K3 public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | dots3-note Preview | Kimi K3 | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| IMOAnswerBench | 90.9% | Coming soon | Coming soon |

## FAQ

### Which is better overall, dots3-note Preview or Kimi K3?

Kimi K3 has the higher overall point estimate. Conditional score ranges do not establish rank confidence.

### Where is the biggest gap between dots3-note Preview and Kimi K3?

The widest category gap is in multimodal & grounded, where the averages are 67.2 for dots3-note Preview and 89.4 for Kimi K3.

### How many benchmarks does dots3-note Preview cover on BenchLM?

dots3-note Preview currently has 31 sourced benchmark scores on BenchLM.

### How many benchmarks does Kimi K3 cover on BenchLM?

Kimi K3 currently has 48 sourced benchmark scores on BenchLM.

## Related Comparisons

- [dots3-note Preview vs GPT-6 Astra](/compare/dots3-note-preview-vs-gpt-6-astra)
- [Kimi K3 vs GPT-6 Astra](/compare/gpt-6-astra-vs-kimi-k3)
- [dots3-note Preview vs Claude Opus 5.5](/compare/claude-opus-5-5-vs-dots3-note-preview)
- [Kimi K3 vs Claude Opus 5.5](/compare/claude-opus-5-5-vs-kimi-k3)

## Explore More

- [dots3-note Preview profile](/models/dots3-note-preview)
- [Kimi K3 profile](/models/kimi-k3)
- [Compare Pricing](/llm-pricing)
- [Alternative Finder](/tools/alternative-finder)
- [LLM Selector](/tools/llm-selector)
- [Overall Rankings](/best/overall)