Model comparison

Kimi K3 vs Llama 3.1-8B

Kimi K3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 59.5 to 23.0 on the Noometry Index. Llama 3.1-8B costs 104× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Kimi K3's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 27 shared benchmarks.

Kimi K3 Moonshot AI

59.5

Rank #15 Confirmed

Llama 3.1-8B Meta

23.0

Rank #352 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 27 benchmarks with published results for both. Kimi K3 scores higher in 9 categories and Llama 3.1-8B in 0 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where Kimi K3 leads 74.2 to 10.2.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 97.2% for Kimi K3 and 1.7% for Llama 3.1-8B.
  • Llama 3.1-8B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.08 per million input/output tokens, against $3 / $15 for Kimi K3.
  • Kimi K3 accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 128K.

Side by side

Kimi K3 and Llama 3.1-8B specifications
Kimi K3Llama 3.1-8B
ProviderMoonshot AIMeta
Noometry Index59.523.0
Released2026-07-162024-07-23
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window1.05M128K
Max output1.05M4K
Input $ / M tokens$3$0.05
Output $ / M tokens$15$0.08
Results tracked5343

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Category by category

Coding Kimi K3 leads

Kimi K3: 61.0 (#10), Llama 3.1-8B: 20.2 (#340)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K3Llama 3.1-8B
SciCode59.5%13.2%
WeirdML82.6%1.7%
LMArena Coding15081195
DeepSWE68.5%—
FrontierCode44.2%—
LMArena WebDev1654—
FrontierSWE25.9%—
BigCodeBench Instruct—32.8%
BigCodeBench Complete—40.5%
ALE-Bench1,524—
HumanEval+—62.8%
MBPP+—55.6%

Agentic & Tool Use Kimi K3 leads

Kimi K3: 41.8 (#20), Llama 3.1-8B: 22.5 (#131)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K3Llama 3.1-8B
APEX-Agents50.6%—
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard—25.8%
τ²-bench Banking37.1%—
PostTrainBench32%—
BALROG—15.1%
GBAEval48.3%—
GDP.pdf19%—
Vending-Bench 25,165—

Reasoning Kimi K3 leads

Kimi K3: 63.0 (#17), Llama 3.1-8B: 14.9 (#321)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K3Llama 3.1-8B
CritPt23.4%0%
Chess Puzzles39%0%
LMArena Hard Prompts14961175
DTBench91.2%50.9%
LMCA52.7%5.4%
Epoch Capabilities Index157.45116.57
ARC-AGI-260.4%—
SimpleBench60.7%—
NYT Connections (extended)93.6%—
ARC-AGI-194.5%—
Mystery Game Puzzles26%—
Surface Evolver Bench95%—
ForecastBench61.1—
PIQA—81.2%

Math Kimi K3 leads

Kimi K3: 74.2 (#16), Llama 3.1-8B: 10.2 (#317)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K3Llama 3.1-8B
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202597.2%1.7%
LMArena Math14911179
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)72.2%—
FrontierMath Tier 439%—
MathArena Final-Answer Competitions87.8%—
ProofBench87%—
Omni-MATH—13.7%
MATH Level 5—22.9%
GSM8K—82.4%

Knowledge Kimi K3 leads

Kimi K3: 63.2 (#21), Llama 3.1-8B: 8.0 (#307)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K3Llama 3.1-8B
GPQA Diamond93.1%27%
LMArena Expert15211144
SimpleQA Verified50.6%—
MMLU-Pro—40.6%
GPQA (HELM)—24.7%
BoolQ—82.8%
MMLU—56.1%

Multimodal Not comparable

Kimi K3: 37.8 (#70), Llama 3.1-8B: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K3Llama 3.1-8B
Blueprint-Bench 229.5%—
Furniture Assembly34.2%—

Multilingual Kimi K3 leads

Kimi K3: 56.3 (#21), Llama 3.1-8B: 34.0 (#249)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K3Llama 3.1-8B
LMArena Non-English14661148
LMArena Chinese15291151
LMArena French14911177
LMArena German14881144
LMArena Japanese14871061
LMArena Korean14581053
LMArena Russian14821158
LMArena Spanish14721169

Instruction Following Kimi K3 leads

Kimi K3: 77.7 (#14), Llama 3.1-8B: 58.9 (#258)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K3Llama 3.1-8B
LMArena Instruction Following14831159
IFEval—74.3%

Long Context Kimi K3 leads

Kimi K3: 45.8 (#29), Llama 3.1-8B: 35.8 (#238)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K3Llama 3.1-8B
LMArena Longer Query14941182

Writing & Preference Kimi K3 leads

Kimi K3: 76.6 (#4), Llama 3.1-8B: 29.7 (#290)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkKimi K3Llama 3.1-8B
LMArena Text14761187
LMArena Creative Writing14541154
EQ-Bench Creative Writing2082713
LMArena Multi-Turn14881172
WildBench—68.7%
EQ-Bench 41339—

Frequently asked questions

Is Kimi K3 better than Llama 3.1-8B?

Kimi K3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 59.5 to 23.0 on the Noometry Index. Llama 3.1-8B costs 104× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Kimi K3's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, Kimi K3 or Llama 3.1-8B?

Llama 3.1-8B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens; Kimi K3 lists at $3 and $15.

Is Kimi K3 or Llama 3.1-8B better for coding?

Kimi K3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 61.0 versus 20.2 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Kimi K3 does, with 1.05M tokens against 128K.

How many benchmarks do Kimi K3 and Llama 3.1-8B share?

27 benchmarks have published results for both models. Kimi K3 has 53 scored results on Noometry and Llama 3.1-8B has 43.

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