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© 2026 CompareLLM. Public benchmark data aggregated from Arena Elo, LiveBench, SWE-bench & OpenRouter.

Every score has a dated snapshot.

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  3. Kimi K3 vs LiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free)

Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 17, 2026noindex (thin pair)

Kimi K3 vs LiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free) benchmark

In this head-to-head showdown, LiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free) is more budget-friendly at $0/1M per 1M output tokens. Review the complete breakdown below to determine which model best fits your performance and budget requirements.

Executive Comparison Verdict

Bottom Line: Choose Kimi K3 if your priority is peak reasoning, complex code generation, and top preference Elo. Choose LiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free) if you are optimizing for low latency, high throughput, and cost-efficient API deployment.
Share Analysis:
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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
liquid
LiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free)

Auto-discovered from OpenRouter (liquid/lfm-2.5-2.6b:free). Preview until a second source matches.

$0/1M out

Kimi K3 Thinking Depth & Cost Scaler

Simulate accuracy gains vs added response time & token cost

Mode: Medium (Deep Reasoning)

Reasoning models “think before answering” by generating internal reasoning tokens. Higher effort improves math, coding, and logic accuracy, but increases response delay and token costs.

Thinking Delay
290 ms
Standard speed
Reasoning Depth
~2,500
Internal tokens
Cost / 1k Calls
$43.50
7.3× standard bill
Accuracy Boost
+5.5% accuracy
STEM & SWE-bench
Top Rival Showdowns for Kimi K3
All Matchups
Compare vs:vs Claude Opus 4.5vs GPT-5vs Gemini 3 Provs Grok 4.6vs DeepSeek V4 Pro
Preference Leader

No shared data

Single model data

Throughput Leader

No shared data

No latency data

Value per Dollar Leader

LiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free)

$0 / 1M output

Capability Percentiles

Relative percentile scores computed across all active models in the benchmark catalog.

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 5/6
Head-to-Head Comparison

Overall Matchup Breakdown

Category wins across reasoning intelligence, generation speed, and token cost.

Kimi K3 (8)vsLiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free) (2)
Kimi K3: 8W (80%)Overall: Kimi K3LiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free): 2W (20%)
← Kimi K3LiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free) →
Kimi K3 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

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

Preference Elo
1,528vs—
Coding Elo
1,535vs—
SWE-bench
73.8%vs—
LiveBench
69.5%vs—
GPQA Diamond
88.4%vs—
Kimi K3: 5WLiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free): 0W
Kimi K3 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed
68 tok/svs—
Time to first token
290 msvs—
Kimi K3: 2WLiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free): 0W
LiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free) (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price
$15/1Mvs$0/1M
Input price
$3/1Mvs$0/1M
Context window
1Mvs128k
Kimi K3: 1WLiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free): 2W

Side-by-Side Benchmark Matrix

Preference Elo
Kimi K31,528
lmarena · Aug 17, 2026
LiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free)—
Coding Elo
Kimi K31,535
lmarena · Aug 17, 2026
LiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free)—
LiveBench
Kimi K369.5%
livebench · Aug 17, 2026
LiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free)—
SWE-bench
Kimi K373.8%
swebench · Aug 17, 2026
LiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free)—
GPQA Diamond
Kimi K388.4%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
LiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free)—
Time to first token
Kimi K3290 ms
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
LiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free)—
Output speed
Kimi K368 tok/s
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
LiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free)—
Input priceLiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free) (+$3/1M)
Kimi K3$3/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
LiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free)$0/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
Output priceLiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free) (+$15/1M)
Kimi K3$15/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
LiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free)$0/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
Context windowKimi K3 (+921k)
Kimi K31M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
LiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free)128k
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
BenchmarkKimi K3LiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free)Advantage Delta
Preference Elo
1,528
lmarena · Aug 17, 2026
——
Coding Elo
1,535
lmarena · Aug 17, 2026
——
LiveBench
69.5%
livebench · Aug 17, 2026
——
SWE-bench
73.8%
swebench · Aug 17, 2026
——
GPQA Diamond
88.4%
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
——
Time to first token
290 ms
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
——
Output speed
68 tok/s
seed-bootstrap · Aug 1, 2026
——
Input price
$3/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
$0/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
LiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free) (+$3/1M)
Output price
$15/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
$0/1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
LiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free) (+$15/1M)
Context window
1M
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
128k
openrouter · Aug 17, 2026
Kimi K3 (+921k)

Key Selection Recommendations

  • 1
    LiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free):Pick LiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free) when you are optimizing output cost.
  • 2
    Kimi K3:Pick Kimi K3 for million-token RAG or long-document jobs.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsinsufficient data

Need SWE-bench on both sides.

High-volume chatLiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free)

Lower output list price ($0/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIinsufficient data

Need TTFT on both sides.

Long-document RAGKimi K3

Larger window (1M).

Screenshots / visionKimi K3

Kimi K3 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target WorkloadRecommended PickEvaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agentsinsufficient dataNeed SWE-bench on both sides.
High-volume chatLiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free)Lower output list price ($0/1M).
Voice / low-latency UIinsufficient dataNeed TTFT on both sides.
Long-document RAGKimi K3Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / visionKimi K3Kimi K3 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

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.

Community Sentiment

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CompareLLM Matrix

Verified head-to-head card

LIVE
VS
Moonshot

Kimi K3

Elo 1,528
LiveBench69.5%
SWE-bench73.8%
Speed68 tok/s
Output cost$15/1M
liquid

LiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free)

Elo n/a
LiveBench—
SWE-bench—
Speed—
Output cost$0/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Kimi K3 or LiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free)?
We do not have preference Elo for both models, so we do not declare an overall winner. Compare the metrics that exist.
Which is better at coding, Kimi K3 or LiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free)?
SWE-bench is missing for at least one model, so we do not rank coding from a single number.
Which is cheaper to run in production?
LiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free) output tokens are $0/1M versus $15/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, Kimi K3 or LiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free)?
We do not have TTFT for both models.
Which has the larger context window?
Kimi K3 accepts 1M tokens versus 128k.
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. Kimi K3 and LiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free) Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Related news

  • launch · Jun 8, 2026

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

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All Kimi K3 matchups →|All LiquidAI: LFM2.5-2.6B (free) matchups →
Kimi K3 vs MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 (previous kimi)MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 vs Kimi K3Gemini 3.7 Flash vs Kimi K3Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Kimi K3Qwen 3 Max vs Kimi K3GPT-4.5 Orion vs Kimi K3