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Model comparison

Grok 4.5 vs Kimi K2.6

Data verified

Head-to-head evidence from 19 shared benchmark results across 5 categories. Overall scores shown here use the public BenchAlign v5 ranking lane.

76.72/100
Margin
19.9pts
← winning
Moonshot AI
56.79/100
2 category wins0 category wins

Public leaderboard positions: Grok 4.5 #7 (Supported); Kimi K2.6 #74 (Estimated). Intervals and evidence labels describe ranking uncertainty, not a guarantee for a specific workload.

Evidence parity. Grok 4.5 and Kimi K2.6 share 19 comparable benchmark results. 2 of 8 categories are comparable. 9 results are unique to Grok 4.5; 32 to Kimi K2.6.

Updated July 23, 2026
Shared results
19
Grok 4.5 only
9
Kimi K2.6 only
32
Comparable categories
2 / 8

Pick Grok 4.5 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Kimi K2.6 only becomes the better choice if you want the cheaper token bill.

Confidence note. This is a partial-evidence comparison with 19 shared benchmark results across 5 evidence categories; 2 of 8 categories currently have scoreable aggregates for both models. Treat the verdict as directional until coverage is more balanced.

Why this result

Grok 4.5 is clearly ahead on the BenchAlign aggregate, 76.72 to 56.79. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

Grok 4.5's sharpest advantage is in agentic, where it averages 83.3 against 73.5. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is Terminal-Bench 2.0, 83.3% to 66.7%.

Grok 4.5 is also the more expensive model on tokens at $2.00 input / $6.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $0.95 input / $4.00 output per 1M tokens for Kimi K2.6. Grok 4.5 gives you the larger context window at 500K, 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 Grok 4.5 and Kimi K2.6
CategoryGrok 4.5ΔKimi K2.6
AgenticGrok 4.583.3Margin 9.8Kimi K2.673.5
CodingGrok 4.564.7Margin 0.3Kimi K2.664.4
KnowledgeGrok 4.5Not measuredMarginNo overlapKimi K2.642.2
MathGrok 4.5Not measuredMarginNo overlapKimi K2.667.1
MultimodalGrok 4.5Not measuredMarginNo overlapKimi K2.679.8

Decisive benchmark drivers

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

More
A · Grok 4.5B · Kimi K2.6
  1. Terminal-Bench 2.0

    Agentic
    Source ↗
    A 83.3%B 66.7%
    Winner: Grok 4.5Δ 16.6
    Terminal-Bench 2.0: Grok 4.5 scored 83.3%; Kimi K2.6 scored 66.7%. Grok 4.5 wins this benchmark.
  2. SWE-bench Pro

    Coding
    Source ↗
    A 64.7%B 58.6%
    Winner: Grok 4.5Δ 6.1
    SWE-bench Pro: Grok 4.5 scored 64.7%; Kimi K2.6 scored 58.6%. Grok 4.5 wins this benchmark.

Operational comparison

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

MetricGrok 4.5Kimi K2.6Comparison
Input / output priceUSD per 1M tokensGrok 4.5$2 input / $6 outputKimi K2.6$0.95 input / $4 outputKimi K2.6 has the lower combined listed price.
Generation speedtokens per secondGrok 4.5Not availableKimi K2.6Not availableA complete speed comparison is not available.
First-answer latencyseconds to first tokenGrok 4.5Not availableKimi K2.6Not availableA complete latency comparison is not available.
Context windowmaximum listed tokensGrok 4.5500KKimi K2.6256KGrok 4.5 lists the larger context window.

Benchmark Deep Dive

AgenticGrok 4.5 wins
BenchmarkGrok 4.5Kimi K2.6Result
Terminal-Bench 2.0Source 83.3%66.7%Grok 4.5 leads
deepSweSource 53%Not comparable
AA Agentic IndexSource 45.7%30.3%Grok 4.5 leads
GDPval-AASource 51.7%34.5%Grok 4.5 leads
GDPval-AASource 15351189Grok 4.5 leads
AA BriefcaseSource 1323Not comparable
AA AutomationBenchSource 51.4%Not comparable
AA EnterpriseOps-GymSource 40.8%Not comparable
AA Harvey LABSource 92.4%Not comparable
AA Tau3 BankingSource 32.6%Not comparable
aaTerminalBench21Source 81.6%Not comparable
BrowseCompSource 83.2%Not comparable
OSWorld-VerifiedSource 73.1%Not comparable
ToolathlonSource 50%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
APEX-Agents-AASource 28.5%Not comparable
Gert LabsSource 56.82%Not comparable
ResearchClawBenchSource 18.0%Not comparable
OSWorld 2.0Source 4.6%Not comparable
terminalBenchHardSource 43.9%Not comparable
CodingGrok 4.5 wins
BenchmarkGrok 4.5Kimi K2.6Result
SWE-bench ProSource 64.7%58.6%Grok 4.5 leads
SWE MultilingualSource 78%76.7%Grok 4.5 leads
Terminal-Bench 2.0Source 83.3%66.7%Grok 4.5 leads
cursorBench32Source 66.7%Not comparable
VulcanBench v3Source 91.3%Not comparable
AA Coding IndexSource 72.5%61.8%Grok 4.5 leads
AA-SciCodeSource 54.1%53.5%Grok 4.5 leads
SWE-bench VerifiedSource 80.2%Not comparable
LiveCodeBench v6Source 89.6%Not comparable
SciCodeSource 52.2%Not comparable
Vibe Code BenchSource 37.89%Not comparable
cursorBench31Source 47.6%Not comparable
Reasoning
BenchmarkGrok 4.5Kimi K2.6Result
AA-LCRSource 67.7%69.7%Kimi K2.6 leads
CritPtSource 15.4%8.0%Grok 4.5 leads
Knowledge
BenchmarkGrok 4.5Kimi K2.6Result
Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexSource 53.8%44.2%Grok 4.5 leads
AA-GPQA DiamondSource 93.1%91.1%Grok 4.5 leads
AA-HLESource 40.3%35.9%Grok 4.5 leads
AA-Omniscience IndexSource 26.4%6.4%Grok 4.5 leads
AA-Omniscience AccuracySource 52.1%32.8%Grok 4.5 leads
AA-Omniscience Hallucination RateSource 53.5%39.3%Kimi K2.6 leads
GPQASource 90.5%Not comparable
GPQA-DSource 90.5%Not comparable
HLESource 34.7%Not comparable
Math
BenchmarkGrok 4.5Kimi K2.6Result
AIME26Source 96.4%Not comparable
HMMT Feb 2026Source 92.7%Not comparable
MMAnswerBenchSource 86.0%Not comparable
FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3)Source 38.966%Not comparable
FrontierMath v2 (Tier 4)Source 14.580%Not comparable
Multimodal
BenchmarkGrok 4.5Kimi K2.6Result
AA-MMMU-ProSource 80.4%79.4%Grok 4.5 leads
Design Arena WebsiteSource 13251306Grok 4.5 leads
MMMU-ProSource 79.4%Not comparable
MMMU-Pro w/ PythonSource 80.1%Not comparable
CharXivSource 80.4%Not comparable
MathVisionSource 87.4%Not comparable
V*Source 96.9%Not comparable
Inst. Following
BenchmarkGrok 4.5Kimi K2.6Result
AA-IFBenchSource 76.0%Not comparable
Frequently Asked Questions (3)

Which is better, Grok 4.5 or Kimi K2.6?

Grok 4.5 is ahead on BenchLM's BenchAlign leaderboard, 76.72 to 56.79. The biggest single separator in this matchup is Terminal-Bench 2.0, where the scores are 83.3% and 66.7%.

Which is better for coding, Grok 4.5 or Kimi K2.6?

Grok 4.5 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 64.7 versus 64.4. Inside this category, Terminal-Bench 2.0 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for agentic tasks, Grok 4.5 or Kimi K2.6?

Grok 4.5 has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 83.3 versus 73.5. Inside this category, GDPval-AA 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.

Grok 4.5
API / mo$6,000
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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