Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 16, 2026

DeepSeek V4 Flash vs Kimi K3 benchmark

Name: DeepSeek V4 Flash vs Kimi K3 AI benchmark comparison
Creator: CompareLLM
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This page compares DeepSeek V4 Flash (DeepSeek) and Kimi K3 (Moonshot) using the latest snapshots we have as of Aug 16, 2026. On preference Elo, Kimi K3 is ahead by 38 points (1,528 vs 1,490; seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). On SWE-bench coding, Kimi K3 resolves 73.8% versus 71.2% (seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). DeepSeek V4 Flash streams faster (142 tok/s) while DeepSeek V4 Flash is the cheaper output token ($0.28/1M). DeepSeek V4 Flash 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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DeepSeek

DeepSeek V4 Flash

DeepSeek Jul 31 2026 price-performance SKU. Public listings put it near $0.14/$0.28 per 1M tokens.

Elo 1,490$0.28/1M 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 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.

DeepSeek V4 Flash (4)vsKimi K3 (5)

DeepSeek V4 Flash: 4W (44%)Overall: Kimi K3Kimi K3: 5W (56%)

← DeepSeek V4 Flash1 tiesKimi K3 →

Kimi K3 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

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

Preference Elo

1,490vs1,528

Coding Elo

1,516vs1,535

SWE-bench

71.2%vs73.8%

LiveBench

67.8%vs69.5%

GPQA Diamond

81.6%vs88.4%

DeepSeek V4 Flash: 0WKimi K3: 5W

DeepSeek V4 Flash (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

142 tok/svs68 tok/s

Time to first token

165 msvs290 ms

DeepSeek V4 Flash: 2WKimi K3: 0W

DeepSeek V4 Flash (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$0.28/1Mvs$15/1M

Input price

$0.14/1Mvs$3/1M

Context window

1Mvs1M

DeepSeek V4 Flash: 2WKimi K3: 0W

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 3/6

Preference Elo

Kimi K3

38 pts advantage

Throughput Speed

DeepSeek V4 Flash

74 tok/s faster

Price Efficiency

DeepSeek V4 Flash

$14.72/1M cheaper

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

—

Elo

High is better

1,490

EloHigh is better

1,528+3%

Code Elo

High is better

1,516

Code EloHigh is better

1,535+1%

LiveBench

High is better

67.8%

LiveBenchHigh is better

69.5%+3%

SWE-bench

High is better

71.2%

SWE-benchHigh is better

73.8%+4%

GPQA

High is better

81.6%

GPQAHigh is better

88.4%+8%

TTFT

Low is better

+76%165 ms

TTFTLow is better

290 ms

Speed

High is better

+109%142 tok/s

SpeedHigh is better

68 tok/s

In $

Low is better

+2043%$0.14/1M

In $Low is better

$3/1M

Out $

Low is better

+5257%$0.28/1M

Out $Low is better

$15/1M

Context

High is better

ContextHigh is better

Interactive Simulator

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

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

Save up to 97% with DeepSeek V4 Flash

Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo

Quick Presets:

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

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

DeepSeek V4 Flash$9.10 / mo

In: $4.90Out: $4.20

Kimi K3$330.00 / mo

In: $105.00Out: $225.00

Estimated Cost Delta

DeepSeek V4 Flash is estimated to save $320.90/month ($3,851/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
DeepSeek V4 Flash:Pick DeepSeek V4 Flash when you are optimizing output cost.
3
DeepSeek V4 Flash:Pick DeepSeek V4 Flash when time-to-first-token matters more than peak Elo.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsKimi K3

Higher SWE-bench (73.8%).

High-volume chatDeepSeek V4 Flash

Lower output list price ($0.28/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIDeepSeek V4 Flash

Lower TTFT (165 ms).

Long-document RAGDeepSeek V4 Flash

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionKimi K3

Kimi K3 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Kimi K3	Higher SWE-bench (73.8%).
High-volume chat	DeepSeek V4 Flash	Lower output list price ($0.28/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	DeepSeek V4 Flash	Lower TTFT (165 ms).
Long-document RAG	DeepSeek V4 Flash	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Kimi K3	Kimi K3 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

View all news

priceJul 31, 2026

DeepSeek V4 Flash (Jul 31): the $0.14/$0.28 price-performance SKU

Public listings put Flash near $0.14/$0.28 per 1M. That is a batch SKU, not a chatbot crown.

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

DeepSeek

DeepSeek V4 Flash

Elo 1,490

LiveBench67.8%

SWE-bench71.2%

Speed142 tok/s

Output cost$0.28/1M

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, DeepSeek V4 Flash 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, DeepSeek V4 Flash or Kimi K3?: Kimi K3 leads SWE-bench at 73.8% vs 71.2%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.
Which is cheaper to run in production?: DeepSeek V4 Flash output tokens are $0.28/1M versus $15/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, DeepSeek V4 Flash or Kimi K3?: DeepSeek V4 Flash has the lower time-to-first-token (165 ms vs 290 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.
Which has the larger context window?: DeepSeek V4 Flash accepts 1M tokens versus 1M.
Can I self-host either model?: DeepSeek V4 Flash is marked open-weights in our catalog. The other side is a closed API. Check the provider license before you ship weights.
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. DeepSeek V4 Flash and Kimi K3 Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All DeepSeek V4 Flash matchups →|All Kimi K3 matchups →

DeepSeek V4 Flash vs DeepSeek V4 Pro (previous deepseek)Kimi K3 vs MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 (previous kimi)DeepSeek V4 Pro vs Kimi K3 MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 vs DeepSeek V4 Flash Kimi Chat 1.5 vs DeepSeek V4 Flash Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking vs DeepSeek V4 Flash

DeepSeek V4 Flash vs Kimi K3 benchmark

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

DeepSeek V4 Flash (4)vsKimi K3 (5)

DeepSeek V4 Flash: 4W (44%)Overall: Kimi K3Kimi K3: 5W (56%)

← DeepSeek V4 Flash1 tiesKimi K3 →

Kimi K3 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

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

Preference Elo

1,490vs1,528

Coding Elo

1,516vs1,535

SWE-bench

71.2%vs73.8%

LiveBench

67.8%vs69.5%

GPQA Diamond

81.6%vs88.4%

DeepSeek V4 Flash: 0WKimi K3: 5W

DeepSeek V4 Flash (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

142 tok/svs68 tok/s

Time to first token

165 msvs290 ms

DeepSeek V4 Flash: 2WKimi K3: 0W

DeepSeek V4 Flash (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$0.28/1Mvs$15/1M

Input price

$0.14/1Mvs$3/1M

Context window

1Mvs1M

DeepSeek V4 Flash: 2WKimi K3: 0W

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsKimi K3

Higher SWE-bench (73.8%).

High-volume chatDeepSeek V4 Flash

Lower output list price ($0.28/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIDeepSeek V4 Flash

Lower TTFT (165 ms).

Long-document RAGDeepSeek V4 Flash

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionKimi K3

Kimi K3 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	Kimi K3	Higher SWE-bench (73.8%).
High-volume chat	DeepSeek V4 Flash	Lower output list price ($0.28/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	DeepSeek V4 Flash	Lower TTFT (165 ms).
Long-document RAG	DeepSeek V4 Flash	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Kimi K3	Kimi K3 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, DeepSeek V4 Flash 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, DeepSeek V4 Flash or Kimi K3?

Kimi K3 leads SWE-bench at 73.8% vs 71.2%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.

Which is cheaper to run in production?

DeepSeek V4 Flash output tokens are $0.28/1M versus $15/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.

Which is faster, DeepSeek V4 Flash or Kimi K3?

DeepSeek V4 Flash has the lower time-to-first-token (165 ms vs 290 ms). Tokens/sec is a separate column if you care about long completions.

Which has the larger context window?

DeepSeek V4 Flash accepts 1M tokens versus 1M.

Can I self-host either model?

DeepSeek V4 Flash is marked open-weights in our catalog. The other side is a closed API. Check the provider license before you ship weights.

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. DeepSeek V4 Flash 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

DeepSeek V4 Flash

DeepSeek V4 Flash

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

DeepSeek V4 Flash (Jul 31): the $0.14/$0.28 price-performance SKU

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

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DeepSeek V4 Flash

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

DeepSeek V4 Flash

DeepSeek V4 Flash

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Key Selection Recommendations

Recommended Workload Routing

Related Editorial Dispatches & Benchmark Notes

DeepSeek V4 Flash (Jul 31): the $0.14/$0.28 price-performance SKU

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

Cast Your Matchup Vote

Community Discussions (0)

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CompareLLM Matrix

DeepSeek V4 Flash

Kimi K3

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons