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Model comparison

GPT-5.6 Luna vs Kimi K2.6

Data verified

Head-to-head evidence from 27 shared benchmark results across 6 categories. Overall scores shown here use the public BenchAlign v5 ranking lane.

67.17/100
Margin
10.4pts
← winning
Moonshot AI
56.79/100
3 category wins2 category wins

Public leaderboard positions: GPT-5.6 Luna #22 (Estimated); Kimi K2.6 #74 (Estimated). Intervals and evidence labels describe ranking uncertainty, not a guarantee for a specific workload.

Evidence parity. GPT-5.6 Luna and Kimi K2.6 share 27 comparable benchmark results. 5 of 8 categories are comparable. 14 results are unique to GPT-5.6 Luna; 24 to Kimi K2.6.

Updated July 23, 2026
Shared results
27
GPT-5.6 Luna only
14
Kimi K2.6 only
24
Comparable categories
5 / 8

Pick GPT-5.6 Luna if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Kimi K2.6 only becomes the better choice if coding is the priority or you want the cheaper token bill.

Confidence note. This is a partial-evidence comparison with 27 shared benchmark results across 6 evidence categories; 5 of 8 categories currently have scoreable aggregates for both models. Treat the verdict as directional until coverage is more balanced.

Why this result

GPT-5.6 Luna is clearly ahead on the BenchAlign aggregate, 67.17 to 56.79. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

GPT-5.6 Luna's sharpest advantage is in knowledge, where it averages 92.3 against 42.2. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is FrontierMath v2 (Tier 4), 58.500% to 14.580%. Kimi K2.6 does hit back in coding, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.

GPT-5.6 Luna is also the more expensive model on tokens at $1.00 input / $6.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $0.95 input / $4.00 output per 1M tokens for Kimi K2.6. GPT-5.6 Luna gives you the larger context window at 1M, compared with 256K for Kimi K2.6.

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 GPT-5.6 Luna and Kimi K2.6
CategoryGPT-5.6 LunaΔKimi K2.6
KnowledgeGPT-5.6 Luna92.3Margin 50.1Kimi K2.642.2
AgenticGPT-5.6 Luna84.1Margin 10.6Kimi K2.673.5
MathGPT-5.6 Luna73.6Margin 6.5Kimi K2.667.1
CodingGPT-5.6 Luna62.7Margin 1.7Kimi K2.664.4
MultimodalGPT-5.6 Luna78.4Margin 1.4Kimi K2.679.8

Decisive benchmark drivers

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

More
A · GPT-5.6 LunaB · Kimi K2.6
  1. FrontierMath v2 (Tier 4)

    Math
    Source ↗
    A 58.500%B 14.580%
    Winner: GPT-5.6 LunaΔ 43.9
    FrontierMath v2 (Tier 4): GPT-5.6 Luna scored 58.500%; Kimi K2.6 scored 14.580%. GPT-5.6 Luna wins this benchmark.
  2. FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3)

    Math
    Source ↗
    A 78.600%B 38.966%
    Winner: GPT-5.6 LunaΔ 39.6
    FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3): GPT-5.6 Luna scored 78.600%; Kimi K2.6 scored 38.966%. GPT-5.6 Luna wins this benchmark.
  3. Terminal-Bench 2.0

    Agentic
    Source ↗
    A 84.7%B 66.7%
    Winner: GPT-5.6 LunaΔ 18
    Terminal-Bench 2.0: GPT-5.6 Luna scored 84.7%; Kimi K2.6 scored 66.7%. GPT-5.6 Luna wins this benchmark.
  4. SWE-bench Pro

    Coding
    Source ↗
    A 62.7%B 58.6%
    Winner: GPT-5.6 LunaΔ 4.1
    SWE-bench Pro: GPT-5.6 Luna scored 62.7%; Kimi K2.6 scored 58.6%. GPT-5.6 Luna wins this benchmark.
  5. GPQA

    Knowledge
    Source ↗
    A 92.3%B 90.5%
    Winner: GPT-5.6 LunaΔ 1.8
    GPQA: GPT-5.6 Luna scored 92.3%; Kimi K2.6 scored 90.5%. GPT-5.6 Luna wins this benchmark.

Operational comparison

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

MetricGPT-5.6 LunaKimi K2.6Comparison
Input / output priceUSD per 1M tokensGPT-5.6 Luna$1 input / $6 outputKimi K2.6$0.95 input / $4 outputKimi K2.6 has the lower combined listed price.
Generation speedtokens per secondGPT-5.6 LunaNot availableKimi K2.6Not availableA complete speed comparison is not available.
First-answer latencyseconds to first tokenGPT-5.6 LunaNot availableKimi K2.6Not availableA complete latency comparison is not available.
Context windowmaximum listed tokensGPT-5.6 Luna1MKimi K2.6256KGPT-5.6 Luna lists the larger context window.

Benchmark Deep Dive

AgenticGPT-5.6 Luna wins
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 LunaKimi K2.6Result
Terminal-Bench 2.0Source 84.7%66.7%GPT-5.6 Luna leads
BrowseCompSource 83.3%83.2%GPT-5.6 Luna leads
OSWorld 2.0Source 45.6%4.6%GPT-5.6 Luna leads
CyberGymSource 77.9%Not comparable
ExploitGymSource 12.4%Not comparable
ToolathlonSource 53.4%50%GPT-5.6 Luna leads
AA Agentic IndexSource 45.6%30.3%GPT-5.6 Luna leads
GDPval-AASource 54.2%34.5%GPT-5.6 Luna leads
GDPval-AASource 15841189GPT-5.6 Luna leads
AA Harvey LABSource 87.9%Not comparable
AA ITBenchSource 40.3%Not comparable
AA Tau3 BankingSource 27.2%Not comparable
AA AutomationBenchSource 42.2%Not comparable
aaTerminalBench21Source 80.9%Not comparable
APEX-Agents-AASource 35.8%28.5%GPT-5.6 Luna leads
OSWorld-VerifiedSource 73.1%Not comparable
MCP AtlasSource 55.9%Not comparable
Claw-EvalSource 62.3%Not comparable
DeepSearchQASource 92.5%Not comparable
WideResearchSource 80.8%Not comparable
τ²-bench resultsSource 95.9%Not comparable
Gert LabsSource 56.82%Not comparable
ResearchClawBenchSource 18.0%Not comparable
terminalBenchHardSource 43.9%Not comparable
CodingKimi K2.6 wins
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 LunaKimi K2.6Result
SWE-bench ProSource 62.7%58.6%GPT-5.6 Luna leads
Terminal-Bench 2.0Source 84.7%66.7%GPT-5.6 Luna leads
deepSweSource 67.2%Not comparable
FrontierCode 1.1 ExtendedSource 55.1%Not comparable
cursorBench32Source 61.1%Not comparable
AA Coding IndexSource 71.5%61.8%GPT-5.6 Luna leads
AA-SciCodeSource 52.5%53.5%Kimi K2.6 leads
SWE-bench VerifiedSource 80.2%Not comparable
LiveCodeBench v6Source 89.6%Not comparable
SWE MultilingualSource 76.7%Not comparable
SciCodeSource 52.2%Not comparable
Vibe Code BenchSource 37.89%Not comparable
cursorBench31Source 47.6%Not comparable
Reasoning
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 LunaKimi K2.6Result
ARC-AGI-3Source 0.2%Not comparable
AA-LCRSource 74.0%69.7%GPT-5.6 Luna leads
CritPtSource 20.6%8.0%GPT-5.6 Luna leads
KnowledgeGPT-5.6 Luna wins
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 LunaKimi K2.6Result
GPQASource 92.3%90.5%GPT-5.6 Luna leads
GPQA-DSource 92.3%90.5%GPT-5.6 Luna leads
HealthBench ProfessionalSource 55.7%Not comparable
HealthBench HardSource 32.0%Not comparable
Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexSource 51.2%44.2%GPT-5.6 Luna leads
AA-GPQA DiamondSource 91.1%91.1%Tie
AA-HLESource 37.2%35.9%GPT-5.6 Luna leads
AA-Omniscience IndexSource -11.2%6.4%Kimi K2.6 leads
AA-Omniscience AccuracySource 41.5%32.8%GPT-5.6 Luna leads
AA-Omniscience Hallucination RateSource 90.1%39.3%Kimi K2.6 leads
HLESource 34.7%Not comparable
MathGPT-5.6 Luna wins
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 LunaKimi K2.6Result
FrontierMath (legacy)Source 78.6%Not comparable
FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3)Source 78.600%38.966%GPT-5.6 Luna leads
FrontierMath v2 (Tier 4)Source 58.500%14.580%GPT-5.6 Luna leads
AIME26Source 96.4%Not comparable
HMMT Feb 2026Source 92.7%Not comparable
MMAnswerBenchSource 86.0%Not comparable
MultimodalKimi K2.6 wins
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 LunaKimi K2.6Result
MMMU-ProSource 78.4%79.4%Kimi K2.6 leads
MMMU-Pro w/ PythonSource 79.5%80.1%Kimi K2.6 leads
AA-MMMU-ProSource 78.6%79.4%Kimi K2.6 leads
CharXivSource 80.4%Not comparable
MathVisionSource 87.4%Not comparable
V*Source 96.9%Not comparable
Design Arena WebsiteSource 1306Not comparable
Inst. Following
BenchmarkGPT-5.6 LunaKimi K2.6Result
AA-IFBenchSource 76.0%Not comparable
Frequently Asked Questions (6)

Which is better, GPT-5.6 Luna or Kimi K2.6?

GPT-5.6 Luna is ahead on BenchLM's BenchAlign leaderboard, 67.17 to 56.79. The biggest single separator in this matchup is FrontierMath v2 (Tier 4), where the scores are 58.500% and 14.580%.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, GPT-5.6 Luna or Kimi K2.6?

GPT-5.6 Luna has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 92.3 versus 42.2. Inside this category, AA-Omniscience Hallucination Rate is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, GPT-5.6 Luna or Kimi K2.6?

Kimi K2.6 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 64.4 versus 62.7. Inside this category, Terminal-Bench 2.0 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, GPT-5.6 Luna or Kimi K2.6?

GPT-5.6 Luna has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 73.6 versus 67.1. Inside this category, FrontierMath v2 (Tier 4) is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for agentic tasks, GPT-5.6 Luna or Kimi K2.6?

GPT-5.6 Luna has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 84.1 versus 73.5. Inside this category, GDPval-AA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multimodal and grounded tasks, GPT-5.6 Luna or Kimi K2.6?

Kimi K2.6 has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 79.8 versus 78.4. Inside this category, MMMU-Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Self-host vs API cost

Estimates at 50,000 req/day · 1000 tokens/req average.

GPT-5.6 Luna
API / mo$5,250
Self-host / moNot listed
Break-even
Proprietary model — self-hosting not applicable.
Kimi K2.6
API / mo$3,713
Self-host / mo$18,221
Break-even326M/day
Model the full break-even

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Last updated: July 23, 2026

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