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© 2026 CompareLLM. Public benchmark data aggregated from Arena Elo, LiveBench, SWE-bench & OpenRouter.

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  3. Kimi K3 vs Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free)

Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 17, 2026noindex (thin pair)

Kimi K3 vs Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free) benchmark

In this head-to-head showdown, Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free) is more budget-friendly at $0/1M per 1M output tokens. Review the complete breakdown below to determine which model best fits your performance and budget requirements.

Executive Comparison Verdict

Bottom Line: Choose Kimi K3 if your priority is peak reasoning, complex code generation, and top preference Elo. Choose Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free) if you are optimizing for low latency, high throughput, and cost-efficient API deployment.
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Executive Verdict Summary

Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free) holds empirical advantage (2 of 3 metrics)

Coding / SWESWE-bench
Kimi K3Top code solve rate
ReasoningGPQA / Live
Kimi K3Top logical accuracy
Best Value$/1M Tok
Kimi K3Lowest API billing cost
Speed / TokTok/Sec
Kimi K3Fastest stream rate

Verified Advantage Breakdown

3 benchmarks evaluated across capability, speed, and cost

Kimi K3 (1)Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free) (2)
Kimi K3
1 of 3 Wins
✓Context window
Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free)
2 of 3 Wins
✓Input price✓Output price
Moonshot
Leads 1 of 3
Kimi K3

Moonshot AI frontier flagship reasoning and agent swarm model with 256k context and top-tier SWE-bench coding capability.

Elo 1,528In: $3 · Out: $15/1M
poolside
Leads 2 of 3
Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free)

Auto-discovered from OpenRouter (poolside/laguna-s-2.1:free). Preview until a second source matches.

In: $0 · Out: $0/1M

Kimi K3 Thinking Depth & Cost Scaler

Model A

Simulate accuracy gains vs added response time & token cost

Mode: Medium (Deep Reasoning)

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.

Delay
290 ms
Standard
CoT Tokens
~2,500
Internal reasoning
Cost / 1k
$43.50
7.3× base bill
Accuracy Boost
+5.5%
STEM & Logic
Top Rival Showdowns for Kimi K3
All Matchups
Compare vs:vs Claude Opus 4.5vs GPT-5vs Gemini 3 Provs Grok 4.6vs DeepSeek V4 Pro
Preference Leader

No shared data

Single model data

Throughput Leader

No shared data

No latency data

Value per Dollar LeaderPoolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free) Wins

Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free)

$0 / 1M output

Capability Percentiles

Relative percentile scores computed across all active models in the benchmark catalog.

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Leaders Matchup Capability Radar

Comparing top standard models across 6 key capability dimensions. Tap any spoke or dot to inspect.

Tap any node to inspect
0–100 %ile

Overall Matchup Breakdown

Category wins across reasoning intelligence, generation speed, and token cost.

Kimi K3 (8)vsPoolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free) (2)
Kimi K3: 8W (80%)Overall: Kimi K3Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free): 2W (20%)
← Kimi K3Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free) →
🏆Kimi K3 Leads(5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Benchmark
Kimi K3vsPoolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free)
Preference Elo
1,528vs—
Coding Elo
1,535vs—
SWE-bench
73.8%vs—
LiveBench
69.5%vs—
GPQA Diamond
88.4%vs—
Kimi K3: 5WPoolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free): 0W
🏆Kimi K3 Leads(2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Benchmark
Kimi K3vsPoolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free)
Output speed
68 tok/svs—
Time to first token
290 msvs—
Kimi K3: 2WPoolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free): 0W
🏆Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free) Leads(2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Benchmark
Kimi K3vsPoolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free)
Output price
$15/1Mvs$0/1M+$15/1M
Input price
$3/1Mvs$0/1M+$3/1M
Context window
1Mvs262k+786k
Kimi K3: 1WPoolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free): 2W

Side-by-Side Benchmark Matrix

Kimi K3Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free)
Preference Elo
Kimi K31,528
Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free)—
Coding Elo
Kimi K31,535
Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free)—
LiveBench
Kimi K369.5%
Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free)—
SWE-bench
Kimi K373.8%
Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free)—
GPQA Diamond
Kimi K388.4%
Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free)—
Time to first token
Kimi K3290 ms
Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free)—
Output speed
Kimi K368 tok/s
Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free)—
Input pricePoolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free) +$3/1M
Kimi K3$3/1M
Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free)$0/1M
Output pricePoolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free) +$15/1M
Kimi K3$15/1M
Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free)$0/1M
Context windowKimi K3 +786k
Kimi K31M
Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free)262k
BenchmarkKimi K3Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free)Advantage Delta
Preference Elo
1,528
lmarena · Aug 17, 2026
——
Coding Elo
1,535
lmarena · Aug 17, 2026
——
LiveBench
69.5%
livebench · Aug 17, 2026
——
SWE-bench
73.8%
swebench · Aug 17, 2026
——
GPQA Diamond
88.4%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
——
Time to first token
290 ms
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
——
Output speed
68 tok/s
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
——
Input price
$3/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
$0/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
+$3/1M
Output price
$15/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
$0/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
+$15/1M
Context window
1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
262k
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
+786k

Key Selection Recommendations

  • 1
    Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free):Pick Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free) when you are optimizing output cost.
  • 2
    Kimi K3:Pick Kimi K3 for million-token RAG or long-document jobs.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsinsufficient data

Need SWE-bench on both sides.

High-volume chatPoolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free)

Lower output list price ($0/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIinsufficient data

Need TTFT on both sides.

Long-document RAGKimi K3

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionKimi K3

Kimi K3 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target WorkloadRecommended PickEvaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agentsinsufficient dataNeed SWE-bench on both sides.
High-volume chatPoolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free)Lower output list price ($0/1M).
Voice / low-latency UIinsufficient dataNeed TTFT on both sides.
Long-document RAGKimi K3Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / visionKimi K3Kimi K3 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

View all news
launchJun 8, 2026

Kimi K3: Moonshot’s long-context open-weight competitive row

Jun 2026. The Kimi vs GPT hub remaps to the top Moonshot Elo vs top OpenAI Elo.

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CompareLLM AI Matrix

Verified Head-to-Head Telemetry

LIVE BENCHMARK
VS
Moonshot

Kimi K3

Elo 1,528
SWE-bench73.8%
Speed (tok/s)68 tok/s
Input / 1M Tokens$3/1M
Output / 1M Tokens$15/1M
poolside

Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free)

Elo n/a
SWE-bench—
Speed (tok/s)262k
Input / 1M Tokens$0/1M
Output / 1M Tokens$0/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Kimi K3 or Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free)?
We do not have preference Elo for both models, so we do not declare an overall winner. Compare the metrics that exist.
Which is better at coding, Kimi K3 or Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free)?
SWE-bench is missing for at least one model, so we do not rank coding from a single number.
Which is cheaper to run in production?
Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free) output tokens are $0/1M versus $15/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, Kimi K3 or Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free)?
We do not have TTFT for both models.
Which has the larger context window?
Kimi K3 accepts 1M tokens versus 262k.
Can I self-host either model?
Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.
Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?
No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.
What does preference Elo mean on this page?
Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. Kimi K3 and Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free) Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Related news

  • launch · Jun 8, 2026

    Kimi K3: Moonshot’s long-context open-weight competitive row

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All Kimi K3 matchups →|All Poolside: Laguna S 2.1 (free) matchups →
Kimi K3 vs MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 (previous kimi)MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 vs Kimi K3Gemini 3.7 Flash vs Kimi K3Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Kimi K3Qwen 3 Max vs Kimi K3GPT-4.5 Orion vs Kimi K3