Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 16, 2026

Claude 3 Opus vs Kimi K3 benchmark

Name: Claude 3 Opus vs Kimi K3 AI benchmark comparison
Creator: CompareLLM
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This page compares Claude 3 Opus (Anthropic) and Kimi K3 (Moonshot) using the latest snapshots we have as of Aug 16, 2026. On preference Elo, Kimi K3 is ahead by 280 points (1,528 vs 1,248; seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). On SWE-bench coding, Kimi K3 resolves 73.8% versus 38.4% (seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). Kimi K3 streams faster (68 tok/s) while Kimi K3 is the cheaper output token ($15/1M). Kimi K3 has the larger context window (1M tokens). Every cell below is a dated snapshot from a named public source — we do not invent missing scores, and we do not run SWE-bench ourselves.

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Anthropic

Claude 3 Opus

Original Claude 3 flagship. Kept so opus 3 vs later Opus and vs GPT-4o still resolve.

Elo 1,248$75/1M out

Moonshot

Kimi K3

Moonshot AI frontier flagship reasoning and agent swarm model with 256k context and top-tier SWE-bench coding capability.

Elo 1,528$15/1M out

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Model A

Model B

Quick vs:vs Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude 3.7 Sonnet

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Claude 3 Opus (0)vsKimi K3 (10)

Claude 3 Opus: 0W (0%)Overall: Kimi K3Kimi K3: 10W (100%)

← Claude 3 OpusKimi K3 →

Kimi K3 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,248vs1,528

Coding Elo

—vs1,535

SWE-bench

38.4%vs73.8%

LiveBench

46.2%vs69.5%

GPQA Diamond

50.4%vs88.4%

Claude 3 Opus: 0WKimi K3: 5W

Kimi K3 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

48 tok/svs68 tok/s

Time to first token

420 msvs290 ms

Claude 3 Opus: 0WKimi K3: 2W

Kimi K3 (3/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$75/1Mvs$15/1M

Input price

$15/1Mvs$3/1M

Context window

200kvs1M

Claude 3 Opus: 0WKimi K3: 3W

Capability Matchup Radar

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Each spoke is a skill. Farther from the center is better (0–100th percentile). Tap any dot to inspect details.

Tap any node to inspect

Percentile 0–100

Dimensional AdvantageKimi K3 6/6

Preference Elo

Kimi K3

280 pts advantage

Throughput Speed

Kimi K3

20 tok/s faster

Price Efficiency

Kimi K3

$60.00/1M cheaper

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

—

Elo

High is better

1,248

EloHigh is better

1,528+22%

Code Elo

High is better

—

Code EloHigh is better

1,535

LiveBench

High is better

46.2%

LiveBenchHigh is better

69.5%+50%

SWE-bench

High is better

38.4%

SWE-benchHigh is better

73.8%+92%

GPQA

High is better

50.4%

GPQAHigh is better

88.4%+75%

TTFT

Low is better

420 ms

TTFTLow is better

290 ms+45%

Speed

High is better

48 tok/s

SpeedHigh is better

68 tok/s+42%

In $

Low is better

$15/1M

In $Low is better

$3/1M+400%

Out $

Low is better

$75/1M

Out $Low is better

$15/1M+400%

Context

High is better

200k

ContextHigh is better

1M+424%

Interactive Simulator

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Simulate monthly production API costs based on published $/1M tokens.

Save up to 80% with Kimi K3

Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo

Quick Presets:

Token Ratio (In vs Out)70% In / 30% Out

RAG / Search (10% out)Coding / Chat (50% out)

Claude 3 Opus$1,650.00 / mo

In: $525.00Out: $1125.00

Kimi K3$330.00 / mo

In: $105.00Out: $225.00

Estimated Cost Delta

Kimi K3 is estimated to save $1,320.00/month ($15,840/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

1
Kimi K3:Pick Kimi K3 when repo-level coding accuracy is the constraint.
2
Kimi K3:Pick Kimi K3 when time-to-first-token matters more than peak Elo.
3
Kimi K3:Pick Kimi K3 for million-token RAG or long-document jobs.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsKimi K3

Higher SWE-bench (73.8%).

High-volume chatKimi K3

Lower output list price ($15/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIKimi K3

Lower TTFT (290 ms).

Long-document RAGKimi K3

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionKimi K3

Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Kimi K3).

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Kimi K3	Higher SWE-bench (73.8%).
High-volume chat	Kimi K3	Lower output list price ($15/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Kimi K3	Lower TTFT (290 ms).
Long-document RAG	Kimi K3	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Kimi K3	Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Kimi K3).

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

View all news

launchJun 8, 2026

Kimi K3: Moonshot’s long-context open-weight competitive row

Jun 2026. The Kimi vs GPT hub remaps to the top Moonshot Elo vs top OpenAI Elo.

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LIVE

Anthropic

Claude 3 Opus

Elo 1,248

LiveBench46.2%

SWE-bench38.4%

Speed48 tok/s

Output cost$75/1M

Moonshot

Kimi K3

Elo 1,528

LiveBench69.5%

SWE-bench73.8%

Speed68 tok/s

Output cost$15/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Claude 3 Opus or Kimi K3?: Kimi K3 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,528). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.
Which is better at coding, Claude 3 Opus or Kimi K3?: Kimi K3 leads SWE-bench at 73.8% vs 38.4%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.
Which is cheaper to run in production?: Kimi K3 output tokens are $15/1M versus $75/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, Claude 3 Opus or Kimi K3?: Kimi K3 has the lower time-to-first-token (290 ms vs 420 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.
Which has the larger context window?: Kimi K3 accepts 1M tokens versus 200k.
Can I self-host either model?: Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.
Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?: No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.
What does preference Elo mean on this page?: Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. Claude 3 Opus and Kimi K3 Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All Claude 3 Opus matchups →|All Kimi K3 matchups →

Claude 3 Opus vs Claude Opus 4 (next opus)Kimi K3 vs MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 (previous kimi)Claude Opus 4.5 vs Kimi K3 Claude Opus 4.6 vs Kimi K3 Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Kimi K3 Claude Opus 5 vs Kimi K3

Claude 3 Opus vs Kimi K3 benchmark

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Claude 3 Opus (0)vsKimi K3 (10)

Claude 3 Opus: 0W (0%)Overall: Kimi K3Kimi K3: 10W (100%)

← Claude 3 OpusKimi K3 →

Kimi K3 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,248vs1,528

Coding Elo

—vs1,535

SWE-bench

38.4%vs73.8%

LiveBench

46.2%vs69.5%

GPQA Diamond

50.4%vs88.4%

Claude 3 Opus: 0WKimi K3: 5W

Kimi K3 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

48 tok/svs68 tok/s

Time to first token

420 msvs290 ms

Claude 3 Opus: 0WKimi K3: 2W

Kimi K3 (3/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$75/1Mvs$15/1M

Input price

$15/1Mvs$3/1M

Context window

200kvs1M

Claude 3 Opus: 0WKimi K3: 3W

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsKimi K3

Higher SWE-bench (73.8%).

High-volume chatKimi K3

Lower output list price ($15/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIKimi K3

Lower TTFT (290 ms).

Long-document RAGKimi K3

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionKimi K3

Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Kimi K3).

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Kimi K3	Higher SWE-bench (73.8%).
High-volume chat	Kimi K3	Lower output list price ($15/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Kimi K3	Lower TTFT (290 ms).
Long-document RAG	Kimi K3	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Kimi K3	Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Kimi K3).

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Claude 3 Opus or Kimi K3?

Kimi K3 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,528). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.

Which is better at coding, Claude 3 Opus or Kimi K3?

Kimi K3 leads SWE-bench at 73.8% vs 38.4%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.

Which is cheaper to run in production?

Kimi K3 output tokens are $15/1M versus $75/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.

Which is faster, Claude 3 Opus or Kimi K3?

Kimi K3 has the lower time-to-first-token (290 ms vs 420 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.

Which has the larger context window?

Kimi K3 accepts 1M tokens versus 200k.

Can I self-host either model?

Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.

Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?

No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.

What does preference Elo mean on this page?

Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. Claude 3 Opus and Kimi K3 Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Intelligence & Reasoning

Speed & Latency

Pricing & Capacity

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Kimi K3

Kimi K3

Kimi K3

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Kimi K3: Moonshot’s long-context open-weight competitive row

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

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CompareLLM Matrix

Claude 3 Opus

Kimi K3

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

Swap or Add Any Model to this Matchup

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Intelligence & Reasoning

Speed & Latency

Pricing & Capacity

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Kimi K3

Kimi K3

Kimi K3

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

Kimi K3: Moonshot’s long-context open-weight competitive row

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

Share card

CompareLLM Matrix

Claude 3 Opus

Kimi K3

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons