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Model comparison

Claude Sonnet 5 vs Kimi K3

Data verified

Head-to-head evidence from 27 shared benchmark results across 5 categories. Overall scores shown here use the public BenchAlign v5 ranking lane.

65.32/100
Margin
15.6pts
winning →
Kimi K3
Moonshot AI
80.96/100
1 category wins2 category wins

Public leaderboard positions: Claude Sonnet 5 #29 (Estimated); Kimi K3 #4 (Supported). Intervals and evidence labels describe ranking uncertainty, not a guarantee for a specific workload.

Evidence parity. Claude Sonnet 5 and Kimi K3 share 27 comparable benchmark results. 3 of 8 categories are comparable. 9 results are unique to Claude Sonnet 5; 30 to Kimi K3.

Updated July 23, 2026
Shared results
27
Claude Sonnet 5 only
9
Kimi K3 only
30
Comparable categories
3 / 8

Pick Kimi K3 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Claude Sonnet 5 only becomes the better choice if multimodal & grounded is the priority or you want the cheaper token bill.

Confidence note. This is a partial-evidence comparison with 27 shared benchmark results across 5 evidence categories; 3 of 8 categories currently have scoreable aggregates for both models. Treat the verdict as directional until coverage is more balanced.

Why this result

Kimi K3 is clearly ahead on the BenchAlign aggregate, 80.96 to 65.32. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

Kimi K3's sharpest advantage is in agentic, where it averages 89.5 against 81.9. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is Terminal-Bench 2.0, 80.4% to 88.3%. Claude Sonnet 5 does hit back in multimodal & grounded, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.

Kimi K3 is also the more expensive model on tokens at $3.00 input / $15.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $2.00 input / $10.00 output per 1M tokens for Claude Sonnet 5. Kimi K3 gives you the larger context window at 1.05M, compared with 1M for Claude Sonnet 5.

Category breakdown

Exact category averages are shown below. Not measured means BenchLM does not have enough sourced public coverage for that model and category.

Category scores and score margins for Claude Sonnet 5 and Kimi K3
CategoryClaude Sonnet 5ΔKimi K3
MultimodalClaude Sonnet 588.3Margin← 9.8Kimi K378.5
AgenticClaude Sonnet 581.9Margin→ 7.6Kimi K389.5
KnowledgeClaude Sonnet 557.4Margin→ 3.6Kimi K361.0
CodingClaude Sonnet 576.7MarginNo overlapKimi K3Not measured

Decisive benchmark drivers

The largest measured benchmark gaps in this matchup, with exact reported values.

More
A · Claude Sonnet 5B · Kimi K3

  1. Terminal-Bench 2.0

    Agentic
    Source ↗
    A 80.4%B 88.3%
    Winner: Kimi K3Δ 7.9
    Terminal-Bench 2.0: Claude Sonnet 5 scored 80.4%; Kimi K3 scored 88.3%. Kimi K3 wins this benchmark.

  2. BrowseComp

    Agentic
    Source ↗
    A 84.7%B 91.2%
    Winner: Kimi K3Δ 6.5
    BrowseComp: Claude Sonnet 5 scored 84.7%; Kimi K3 scored 91.2%. Kimi K3 wins this benchmark.

  3. CharXiv

    Multimodal
    Source ↗
    A 88.3%B 91.3%
    Winner: Kimi K3Δ 3
    CharXiv: Claude Sonnet 5 scored 88.3%; Kimi K3 scored 91.3%. Kimi K3 wins this benchmark.

  4. HLE

    Knowledge
    Source ↗
    A 57.4%B 56%
    Winner: Claude Sonnet 5Δ 1.4
    HLE: Claude Sonnet 5 scored 57.4%; Kimi K3 scored 56%. Claude Sonnet 5 wins this benchmark.

Operational comparison

Runtime and commercial metrics are compared only when both models have a complete sourced value.

MetricClaude Sonnet 5Kimi K3Comparison
Input / output priceUSD per 1M tokensClaude Sonnet 5$2 input / $10 outputKimi K3$3 input / $15 outputClaude Sonnet 5 has the lower combined listed price.
Generation speedtokens per secondClaude Sonnet 5Not availableKimi K3Not availableA complete speed comparison is not available.
First-answer latencyseconds to first tokenClaude Sonnet 5Not availableKimi K3Not availableA complete latency comparison is not available.
Context windowmaximum listed tokensClaude Sonnet 51MKimi K31.05MKimi K3 lists the larger context window.

Benchmark Deep Dive

AgenticKimi K3 wins
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Kimi K3Result
Terminal-Bench 2.0Source 80.4%88.3%Kimi K3 leads
BrowseCompSource 84.7%91.2%Kimi K3 leads
HLE w/ toolsSource 57.4%—Not comparable
OSWorld-VerifiedSource 81.2%—Not comparable
GDPval-AASource 16071679Kimi K3 leads
AA Agentic IndexSource 46.7%50.1%Kimi K3 leads
GDPval-AASource 55.4%59.0%Kimi K3 leads
AA BriefcaseSource 13881543Kimi K3 leads
AA AutomationBenchSource 39.2%52.7%Kimi K3 leads
AA EnterpriseOps-GymSource 44.7%45.3%Kimi K3 leads
AA Harvey LABSource 90.1%94.6%Kimi K3 leads
AA Tau3 BankingSource 28.2%33.4%Kimi K3 leads
aaTerminalBench21Source 80.5%85%Kimi K3 leads
DeepSearchQASource —95.0%Not comparable
Toolathlon-VerifiedSource —73.2%Not comparable
MCP AtlasSource —84.2%Not comparable
AutomationBenchSource —30.8%Not comparable
JobBenchSource —52.9%Not comparable
APEX-AgentsSource —37.6%Not comparable
SpreadsheetBench 2Source —34.8%Not comparable
DECK-BenchSource —73.5%Not comparable
APEX-Agents-AASource —41.3%Not comparable
AA ITBenchSource —47.7%Not comparable
Coding
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Kimi K3Result
SWE-bench VerifiedSource 85.2%—Not comparable
SWE-bench ProSource 63.2%—Not comparable
SWE MultilingualSource 78.3%—Not comparable
SWE MultimodalSource 28.1%—Not comparable
Terminal-Bench 2.0Source 80.4%—Not comparable
FrontierCode 1.1 MainSource 42.7%—Not comparable
cursorBench32Source 61.5%—Not comparable
AA Coding IndexSource 71.5%76.2%Kimi K3 leads
AA-SciCodeSource 53.6%58.7%Kimi K3 leads
deepSweSource —67.5%Not comparable
FrontierSWESource —81.2%Not comparable
ProgramBenchSource —77.8%Not comparable
Kimi Code Bench v2Source —72.9%Not comparable
sweMarathonSource —42%Not comparable
PostTrain BenchSource —36.6%Not comparable
MLS-Bench LiteSource —48.3%Not comparable
Reasoning
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Kimi K3Result
AA-LCRSource 70.7%74.7%Kimi K3 leads
CritPtSource 16.9%23.4%Kimi K3 leads
KnowledgeKimi K3 wins
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Kimi K3Result
HLESource 57.4%56%Claude Sonnet 5 leads
HLE w/o toolsSource 43.2%43.5%Kimi K3 leads
Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexSource 53.4%57.1%Kimi K3 leads
AA-GPQA DiamondSource 91.1%93.5%Kimi K3 leads
AA-HLESource 39.6%44.3%Kimi K3 leads
AA-Omniscience IndexSource 15.3%18.4%Kimi K3 leads
AA-Omniscience AccuracySource 38.3%46.0%Kimi K3 leads
AA-Omniscience Hallucination RateSource 37.3%50.9%Claude Sonnet 5 leads
GPQASource —93.5%Not comparable
GPQA-DSource —93.5%Not comparable
MultimodalClaude Sonnet 5 wins
BenchmarkClaude Sonnet 5Kimi K3Result
CharXivSource 88.3%91.3%Kimi K3 leads
CharXiv w/o toolsSource 77%84.8%Kimi K3 leads
AA-MMMU-ProSource 77.3%80.5%Kimi K3 leads
Design Arena WebsiteSource 13141386Kimi K3 leads
OfficeQA ProSource —63.3%Not comparable
MMMU-ProSource —81.6%Not comparable
MMMU-Pro w/ PythonSource —83.4%Not comparable
MathVisionSource —94.3%Not comparable
MathVision w/ PythonSource —97.8%Not comparable
BabyVision w/ PythonSource —85.7%Not comparable
ZeroBenchSource —23.0%Not comparable
ZeroBench w/ PythonSource —41.0%Not comparable
WorldVQA ForceAnswerSource —51.0%Not comparable
OmniDocBenchSource —91.1%Not comparable
PerceptionBenchSource —58.5%Not comparable
Frequently Asked Questions (4)

Which is better, Claude Sonnet 5 or Kimi K3?

Kimi K3 is ahead on BenchLM's BenchAlign leaderboard, 80.96 to 65.32. The biggest single separator in this matchup is Terminal-Bench 2.0, where the scores are 80.4% and 88.3%.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, Claude Sonnet 5 or Kimi K3?

Kimi K3 has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 61 versus 57.4. Inside this category, AA-Omniscience Hallucination Rate is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for agentic tasks, Claude Sonnet 5 or Kimi K3?

Kimi K3 has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 89.5 versus 81.9. Inside this category, AA Briefcase is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multimodal and grounded tasks, Claude Sonnet 5 or Kimi K3?

Claude Sonnet 5 has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 88.3 versus 78.5. Inside this category, Design Arena Website is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

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