# Kimi K3 vs Step 5 Preview

> Side-by-side benchmark comparison for Kimi K3 and Step 5 Preview across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, multilingual, and math tasks.

- Canonical page: https://benchlm.ai/compare/kimi-k3-vs-step-5-preview
- Last updated: September 21, 2026

- Shared sourced benchmarks: 14
- HTML indexing: indexable
- Ranking lane: BenchAlign v5

## Quick Verdict

Pick Kimi K3 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Step 5 Preview only makes more sense when its price, context window, or workload-specific category wins matter more than the overall score.

## Summary

- Kimi K3 leads overall 74.3 to 72.
- The clearest category separation is in multimodal & grounded, where the averages are 89.4 for Kimi K3 and 61.2 for Step 5 Preview.
- The biggest single benchmark swing is sweMarathon in Coding, with scores of 42% and 72.7%.
- Step 5 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 | Kimi K3 | Step 5 Preview |
|----------|----------|----------|
| Creator | Moonshot AI | StepFun |
| Type | Pending | Pending |
| Reasoning | Reasoning | Reasoning |
| Context | 1.05M | 1M |
| Overall Score | 74.3 | null |
| Benchmarks Covered | 44 | 22 |
| Pricing (input/output) | $3.00 / $15.00 | $1.00 / $2.70 |

## Category Breakdown

### Agentic

- Winner: Coming soon
- Kimi K3 public-lane score: 72.1 (Supported · #4/154)
- Step 5 Preview public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Kimi K3 | Step 5 Preview | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| Terminal-Bench 2.0 | 88.3% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| BrowseComp | 91.2% | 88.7% | Kimi K3 |
| DeepSearchQA | 95.0% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Toolathlon-Verified | 73.2% | 74.1% | Step 5 Preview |
| MCP Atlas | 84.2% | 85.6% | Step 5 Preview |
| AutomationBench | 30.8% | 44.0% | Step 5 Preview |
| JobBench | 52.9% | 59.0% | Step 5 Preview |
| APEX-Agents | 37.6% | 37.8% | Step 5 Preview |
| SpreadsheetBench 2 | 34.8% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| DECK-Bench | 73.5% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals) | 80.9% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| ApprenticeBench | 18% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | Coming soon | 85.0% | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 4.0 | Coming soon | 33.30% | Coming soon |
| CyberGym | Coming soon | 84.7% | Coming soon |
| DRACO | Coming soon | 83.3% | Coming soon |
| Agents' Last Exam | Coming soon | 29.5% | Coming soon |

### Coding

- Winner: Coming soon
- Kimi K3 public-lane score: 67.9 (Supported · #9/156)
- Step 5 Preview public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Kimi K3 | Step 5 Preview | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| DeepSWE | 67.5% | 67.7% | Step 5 Preview |
| cursorBench32 | 60.8% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| FrontierSWE | 81.2% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| ProgramBench | 77.8% | 80.5% | Step 5 Preview |
| Kimi Code Bench v2 | 72.9% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| sweMarathon | 42% | 72.7% | Step 5 Preview |
| PostTrain Bench | 36.6% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| MLS-Bench Lite | 48.3% | 40.5% | Kimi K3 |
| VulcanBench v3 | 73.7% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| OpenHarmony Bench | 57.3% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| FrontierSWE v2 | 25.9% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals) | 87.2% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| SWE-bench (Vals) | 93.4% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | Coming soon | 85.0% | Coming soon |
| SciCode | Coming soon | 58.9% | Coming soon |

### Reasoning

- Winner: Coming soon
- Kimi K3 public-lane score: 78.5 (#3/19)
- Step 5 Preview public-lane score: 78.5 (Unranked · 2 rankable rows)

| Benchmark | Kimi K3 | Step 5 Preview | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| CritPt | Coming soon | 20.9% | Coming soon |

### Multimodal & Grounded

- Winner: Coming soon
- Kimi K3 public-lane score: 89.4 (#1/49)
- Step 5 Preview public-lane score: 61.2 (#28/49)

| Benchmark | Kimi K3 | Step 5 Preview | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| OfficeQA Pro | 63.3% | 60.3% | Kimi K3 |
| MMMU-Pro | 81.6% | 76% | Kimi K3 |
| MMMU-Pro w/ Python | 83.4% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| CharXiv w/o tools | 84.8% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| CharXiv | 91.3% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| MathVision | 94.3% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| MathVision w/ Python | 97.8% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| BabyVision w/ Python | 85.7% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| ZeroBench | 23.0% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| ZeroBench w/ Python | 41.0% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| WorldVQA ForceAnswer | 51.0% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| OmniDocBench | 91.1% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| PerceptionBench | 58.5% | Coming soon | Coming soon |

### Knowledge

- Winner: Coming soon
- Kimi K3 public-lane score: 72.1 (Supported · #8/186)
- Step 5 Preview public-lane score: Coming soon

| Benchmark | Kimi K3 | Step 5 Preview | Winner |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------|
| GPQA | 93.5% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| GPQA-D | 93.5% | 93.5% | Tie |
| HLE | 56% | 46.5% | Kimi K3 |
| HLE w/o tools | 43.5% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| GPQA Diamond (Vals) | 92.9% | Coming soon | Coming soon |
| MMLU-Pro (Vals) | 88.0% | Coming soon | Coming soon |

## FAQ

### Which is better overall, Kimi K3 or Step 5 Preview?

Kimi K3 is ahead overall on BenchLM right now.

### Where is the biggest gap between Kimi K3 and Step 5 Preview?

The widest category gap is in multimodal & grounded, where the averages are 89.4 for Kimi K3 and 61.2 for Step 5 Preview.

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

Kimi K3 currently has 44 sourced benchmark scores on BenchLM.

### How many benchmarks does Step 5 Preview cover on BenchLM?

Step 5 Preview currently has 22 sourced benchmark scores on BenchLM.

## Related Comparisons

- [Kimi K3 vs Claude Fable 5.1](/compare/claude-fable-5-1-vs-kimi-k3)
- [Step 5 Preview vs Claude Fable 5.1](/compare/claude-fable-5-1-vs-step-5-preview)
- [Kimi K3 vs GPT-6 Astra](/compare/gpt-6-astra-vs-kimi-k3)
- [Step 5 Preview vs GPT-6 Astra](/compare/gpt-6-astra-vs-step-5-preview)

## Explore More

- [Kimi K3 profile](/models/kimi-k3)
- [Step 5 Preview profile](/models/step-5-preview)
- [Compare Pricing](/llm-pricing)
- [Alternative Finder](/tools/alternative-finder)
- [LLM Selector](/tools/llm-selector)
- [Overall Rankings](/best/overall)