Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 17, 2026
In this head-to-head showdown, DeepSeek V4 Pro delivers higher overall intelligence and human-preferred responses (Elo 1,536 vs 1,528), while Kimi K3 leads in SWE-bench software engineering benchmarks (73.8%), while DeepSeek V4 Pro is more budget-friendly at $3.96/1M 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
Open-weight-adjacent DeepSeek flagship. High reasoning density per dollar.
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.
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 8 Arena Elo pts
70 tok/s
$3.9600000000000004 / 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 V4 Pro | Kimi K3 | Advantage Delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| Preference Elo | +8 | ||
| Coding Elo | +9 | ||
| LiveBench | +0.6% | ||
| SWE-bench | +2.2% | ||
| GPQA Diamond | +4.4% | ||
| Time to first token | +120 ms | ||
| Output speed | 70 tok/s | 68 tok/s | +2 tok/s |
| Input price | $1.32/1M | +$1.68/1M | |
| Output price | $3.96/1M | +$11.04/1M | |
| Context window | — |
Simulate monthly production API costs in USD (US Dollar).
DeepSeek V4 Pro is estimated to save $224.40/month ($2,693/year).
Higher SWE-bench (73.8%).
Lower output list price ($3.96/1M).
Lower TTFT (290 ms).
Larger window (1M).
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 V4 Pro | Lower output list price ($3.96/1M). |
| Voice / low-latency UI | Kimi K3 | Lower TTFT (290 ms). |
| Long-document RAG | DeepSeek V4 Pro | Larger window (1M). |
| Screenshots / vision | Kimi K3 | Kimi K3 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog. |
Top DeepSeek vs top Anthropic Elo. Usually V4 Pro vs Opus 5. License and invoice decide as much as Elo.
2026-06 open-weight-adjacent flagship. The usual cheap-vs-Claude question starts here.
Jun 2026. The Kimi vs GPT hub remaps to the top Moonshot Elo vs top OpenAI Elo.
Jan 2025 reasoning model. Still searched. V4 Pro is the newer DeepSeek buy.
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Verified Head-to-Head Telemetry
compare · Jun 13, 2026
DeepSeek vs Claude: the cheap-versus-frontier question, remapped
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DeepSeek V4 Pro: high reasoning density per dollar
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Kimi K3: Moonshot’s long-context open-weight competitive row
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DeepSeek R1 stays as the open-weights RL baseline