Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 1, 2026
In this head-to-head showdown, Kimi K3 delivers higher overall intelligence and human-preferred responses (Elo 1,528 vs 1,365), while Kimi K3 leads in SWE-bench software engineering benchmarks (73.8%), while DeepSeek Coder V2 is more budget-friendly at $0.28/1M per 1M output tokens. Review the complete breakdown below to determine which model best fits your performance and budget requirements.
9 direct benchmark disciplines evaluated across capability, speed, and cost
DeepSeek open-weight Mixture-of-Experts coding model supporting 338 programming languages and 128k context.
Moonshot AI frontier flagship reasoning and agent swarm model with 256k context and top-tier SWE-bench coding capability.
Simulate accuracy gains vs added response time & token cost
Reasoning models “think before answering” by generating internal reasoning tokens. Higher effort improves math, coding, and logic accuracy, but increases response delay and token costs.
Δ 163 Arena Elo pts
75 tok/s
$0.28 / 1M output
Relative percentile scores computed across all active models in the benchmark catalog.
Comparing top Western standard models with China's leading frontier rival across 6 skill dimensions. Tap any spoke or dot to inspect.
Category wins across reasoning intelligence, generation speed, and token cost.
Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy
Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness
Cost per million tokens and max context window length
| Benchmark | DeepSeek Coder V2 | Kimi K3 | Advantage Delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Preference Elo | +163 | ||
| Coding Elo | +93 | ||
| LiveBench | +10.9% | ||
| SWE-bench | +13.3% | ||
| GPQA Diamond | +18.2% | ||
| Time to first token | — | ||
| Output speed | 75 tok/s | 68 tok/s | +7 tok/s |
| Input price | $0.14/1M | $0.6/1M | +$0.46/1M |
| Output price | $0.28/1M | $2.5/1M | +$2.22/1M |
| Context window | +134k |
Simulate monthly production API costs in USD (US Dollar).
DeepSeek Coder V2 is estimated to save $49.40/month ($593/year).
Higher SWE-bench (73.8%).
Lower output list price ($0.28/1M).
Lower TTFT (290 ms).
Larger window (262k).
Kimi K3 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.
| Target Workload | Recommended Pick | Evaluation Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Repo / coding agents | Kimi K3 | Higher SWE-bench (73.8%). |
| High-volume chat | DeepSeek Coder V2 | Lower output list price ($0.28/1M). |
| Voice / low-latency UI | DeepSeek Coder V2 | Lower TTFT (290 ms). |
| Long-document RAG | Kimi K3 | Larger window (262k). |
| Screenshots / vision | Kimi K3 | Kimi K3 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog. |
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