Model comparison

GPT-4.1 mini vs Kimi K3

Kimi K3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 59.5 to 33.6 on the Noometry Index. GPT-4.1 mini costs 8.6× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Kimi K3's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 32 shared benchmarks.

GPT-4.1 mini OpenAI

33.6

Rank #240 Confirmed

Kimi K3 Moonshot AI

59.5

Rank #15 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 32 benchmarks with published results for both. GPT-4.1 mini scores higher in 0 categories and Kimi K3 in 10 categories; 10 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in reasoning, where Kimi K3 leads 63.0 to 10.8.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is ARC-AGI-1: 3.5% for GPT-4.1 mini and 94.5% for Kimi K3.
  • GPT-4.1 mini is cheaper at $0.40 / $1.60 per million input/output tokens, against $3 / $15 for Kimi K3.
  • Kimi K3 accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 1.05M.
  • Kimi K3 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

GPT-4.1 mini and Kimi K3 specifications
GPT-4.1 miniKimi K3
ProviderOpenAIMoonshot AI
Noometry Index33.659.5
Released2025-04-142026-07-16
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M1.05M
Max output33K1.05M
Input $ / M tokens$0.40$3
Output $ / M tokens$1.60$15
Results tracked4753

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Category by category

Coding Kimi K3 leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 30.6 (#293), Kimi K3: 61.0 (#10)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniKimi K3
SciCode40.4%59.5%
WeirdML37.6%82.6%
LMArena Coding13671508
DeepSWE—68.5%
FrontierCode—44.2%
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)23.9%—
Aider Polyglot32.4%—
LMArena WebDev—1654
FrontierSWE—25.9%
BigCodeBench Instruct48.9%—
CadEval16%—
ALE-Bench—1,524

Agentic & Tool Use Kimi K3 leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 33.3 (#55), Kimi K3: 41.8 (#20)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniKimi K3
APEX-Agents—50.6%
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard50.5%—
τ²-bench Banking—37.1%
PostTrainBench—32%
GBAEval—48.3%
GDP.pdf—19%
Vending-Bench 2—5,165

Reasoning Kimi K3 leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 10.8 (#340), Kimi K3: 63.0 (#17)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniKimi K3
ARC-AGI-20%60.4%
ARC-AGI-13.5%94.5%
CritPt0%23.4%
Chess Puzzles7%39%
LMArena Hard Prompts13491496
Mystery Game Puzzles7%26%
DTBench68.8%91.2%
LMCA21.1%52.7%
Epoch Capabilities Index135.01157.45
SimpleBench—60.7%
Kagi LLM Benchmark48.6%—
NYT Connections (extended)—93.6%
Surface Evolver Bench—95%
ForecastBench—61.1

Math Kimi K3 leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 24.1 (#270), Kimi K3: 74.2 (#16)

Knowledge Kimi K3 leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 34.7 (#194), Kimi K3: 63.2 (#21)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniKimi K3
GPQA Diamond65.8%93.1%
SimpleQA Verified12.7%50.6%
LMArena Expert13381521
MMLU-Pro78.3%—
GPQA (HELM)61.4%—

Multimodal Kimi K3 leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 35.8 (#82), Kimi K3: 37.8 (#70)

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniKimi K3
LMArena Vision1181—
Blueprint-Bench 2—29.5%
Furniture Assembly—34.2%

Multilingual Kimi K3 leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 45.7 (#166), Kimi K3: 56.3 (#21)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniKimi K3
LMArena Non-English13181466
LMArena Chinese13291529
LMArena French13581491
LMArena German13511488
LMArena Japanese12901487
LMArena Korean12981458
LMArena Russian13241482
LMArena Spanish13191472

Instruction Following Kimi K3 leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 73.7 (#118), Kimi K3: 77.7 (#14)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniKimi K3
LMArena Instruction Following13331483
IFEval90.4%—

Long Context Kimi K3 leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 31.8 (#275), Kimi K3: 45.8 (#29)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniKimi K3
LMArena Longer Query13441494
Fiction.LiveBench44.4%—

Writing & Preference Kimi K3 leads

GPT-4.1 mini: 48.6 (#199), Kimi K3: 76.6 (#4)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 miniKimi K3
LMArena Text13401476
LMArena Creative Writing13001454
EQ-Bench Creative Writing11472082
LMArena Multi-Turn13541488
WildBench83.8%—
EQ-Bench 4—1339

Frequently asked questions

Is GPT-4.1 mini better than Kimi K3?

Kimi K3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 59.5 to 33.6 on the Noometry Index. GPT-4.1 mini costs 8.6× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Kimi K3's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, GPT-4.1 mini or Kimi K3?

GPT-4.1 mini is cheaper. It lists at $0.40 per million input tokens and $1.60 per million output tokens; Kimi K3 lists at $3 and $15.

Is GPT-4.1 mini or Kimi K3 better for coding?

Kimi K3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 61.0 versus 30.6 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Kimi K3 does, with 1.05M tokens against 1.05M.

How many benchmarks do GPT-4.1 mini and Kimi K3 share?

32 benchmarks have published results for both models. GPT-4.1 mini has 47 scored results on Noometry and Kimi K3 has 53.

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