Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 16, 2026

Claude Opus 4.6 vs Kimi K3 benchmark

Name: Claude Opus 4.6 vs Kimi K3 AI benchmark comparison
Creator: CompareLLM
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This page compares Claude Opus 4.6 (Anthropic) and Kimi K3 (Moonshot) using the latest snapshots we have as of Aug 16, 2026. On preference Elo, Claude Opus 4.6 is ahead by 46 points (1,574 vs 1,528; seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). On SWE-bench coding, Claude Opus 4.6 resolves 75.9% versus 73.8% (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 Opus 4.6

Follow-on Opus release. Slightly behind 4.5 on official SWE-bench bash-only in the last published sweep; stronger long-horizon agent traces.

Elo 1,574$25/1M 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

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Quick vs:vs Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude 3.7 Sonnet vs GPT-5

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Claude Opus 4.6 (4)vsKimi K3 (6)

Claude Opus 4.6: 4W (40%)Overall: Kimi K3Kimi K3: 6W (60%)

← Claude Opus 4.6Kimi K3 →

Claude Opus 4.6 (4/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

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

Preference Elo

1,574vs1,528

Coding Elo

1,570vs1,535

SWE-bench

75.9%vs73.8%

LiveBench

72%vs69.5%

GPQA Diamond

84.8%vs88.4%

Claude Opus 4.6: 4WKimi K3: 1W

Kimi K3 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

64 tok/svs68 tok/s

Time to first token

360 msvs290 ms

Claude Opus 4.6: 0WKimi K3: 2W

Kimi K3 (3/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$25/1Mvs$15/1M

Input price

$5/1Mvs$3/1M

Context window

1Mvs1M

Claude Opus 4.6: 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 AdvantageEven 3–3

Preference Elo

Claude Opus 4.6

46 pts advantage

Throughput Speed

Kimi K3

4 tok/s faster

Price Efficiency

Kimi K3

$10.00/1M cheaper

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

—

Elo

High is better

+3%1,574

EloHigh is better

1,528

Code Elo

High is better

+2%1,570

Code EloHigh is better

1,535

LiveBench

High is better

+4%72%

LiveBenchHigh is better

69.5%

SWE-bench

High is better

+3%75.9%

SWE-benchHigh is better

73.8%

GPQA

High is better

84.8%

GPQAHigh is better

88.4%+4%

TTFT

Low is better

360 ms

TTFTLow is better

290 ms+24%

Speed

High is better

64 tok/s

SpeedHigh is better

68 tok/s+6%

In $

Low is better

$5/1M

In $Low is better

$3/1M+67%

Out $

Low is better

$25/1M

Out $Low is better

$15/1M+67%

Context

High is better

ContextHigh is better

1M+5%

Interactive Simulator

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

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

Save up to 40% 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 Opus 4.6$550.00 / mo

In: $175.00Out: $375.00

Kimi K3$330.00 / mo

In: $105.00Out: $225.00

Estimated Cost Delta

Kimi K3 is estimated to save $220.00/month ($2,640/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

1
Claude Opus 4.6:Pick Claude Opus 4.6 when repo-level coding accuracy is the constraint.
2
Kimi K3:Pick Kimi K3 when you are optimizing output cost.
3
Kimi K3:Pick Kimi K3 when time-to-first-token matters more than peak Elo.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsClaude Opus 4.6

Higher SWE-bench (75.9%).

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 / visionClaude Opus 4.6

Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Claude Opus 4.6).

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Claude Opus 4.6	Higher SWE-bench (75.9%).
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	Claude Opus 4.6	Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Claude Opus 4.6).

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.

launchMay 10, 2026

Claude Opus 4.6: the May follow-on that still shows up in old bookmarks

Slightly behind 4.5 on one official SWE-bench sweep; stronger long-horizon traces. We keep the row for old vs URLs.

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LIVE

Anthropic

Claude Opus 4.6

Elo 1,574

LiveBench72%

SWE-bench75.9%

Speed64 tok/s

Output cost$25/1M

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 Opus 4.6 or Kimi K3?: Claude Opus 4.6 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,574). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.
Which is better at coding, Claude Opus 4.6 or Kimi K3?: Claude Opus 4.6 leads SWE-bench at 75.9% vs 73.8%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.
Which is cheaper to run in production?: Kimi K3 output tokens are $15/1M versus $25/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, Claude Opus 4.6 or Kimi K3?: Kimi K3 has the lower time-to-first-token (290 ms vs 360 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 1M.
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 Opus 4.6 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 Opus 4.6 matchups →|All Kimi K3 matchups →

Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Opus 4.5 (previous opus)Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Opus 4.8 (next opus)Kimi K3 vs MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 (previous kimi)Claude Sonnet 5 vs Claude Opus 4.6 Claude Fable 5 vs Claude Opus 4.6 Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Kimi K3

Claude Opus 4.6 vs Kimi K3 benchmark

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Claude Opus 4.6 (4)vsKimi K3 (6)

Claude Opus 4.6: 4W (40%)Overall: Kimi K3Kimi K3: 6W (60%)

← Claude Opus 4.6Kimi K3 →

Claude Opus 4.6 (4/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

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

Preference Elo

1,574vs1,528

Coding Elo

1,570vs1,535

SWE-bench

75.9%vs73.8%

LiveBench

72%vs69.5%

GPQA Diamond

84.8%vs88.4%

Claude Opus 4.6: 4WKimi K3: 1W

Kimi K3 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

64 tok/svs68 tok/s

Time to first token

360 msvs290 ms

Claude Opus 4.6: 0WKimi K3: 2W

Kimi K3 (3/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$25/1Mvs$15/1M

Input price

$5/1Mvs$3/1M

Context window

1Mvs1M

Claude Opus 4.6: 0WKimi K3: 3W

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsClaude Opus 4.6

Higher SWE-bench (75.9%).

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 / visionClaude Opus 4.6

Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Claude Opus 4.6).

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Claude Opus 4.6	Higher SWE-bench (75.9%).
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	Claude Opus 4.6	Both accept images. Defaulting to the higher-Elo side (Claude Opus 4.6).

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Claude Opus 4.6 or Kimi K3?

Claude Opus 4.6 has the higher preference Elo in our latest snapshot (1,574). “Better” still depends on coding, price, and latency — see the table.

Which is better at coding, Claude Opus 4.6 or Kimi K3?

Claude Opus 4.6 leads SWE-bench at 75.9% vs 73.8%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.

Which is cheaper to run in production?

Kimi K3 output tokens are $15/1M versus $25/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.

Which is faster, Claude Opus 4.6 or Kimi K3?

Kimi K3 has the lower time-to-first-token (290 ms vs 360 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 1M.

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 Opus 4.6 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

Claude Opus 4.6

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

Claude Opus 4.6: the May follow-on that still shows up in old bookmarks

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CompareLLM Matrix

Claude Opus 4.6

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

Claude Opus 4.6

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

Claude Opus 4.6: the May follow-on that still shows up in old bookmarks

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

Share card

CompareLLM Matrix

Claude Opus 4.6

Kimi K3

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons