Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 16, 2026

Kimi K3 vs Llama 3.1 405B benchmark

Name: Kimi K3 vs Llama 3.1 405B AI benchmark comparison
Creator: CompareLLM
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This page compares Kimi K3 (Moonshot) and Llama 3.1 405B (Meta) using the latest snapshots we have as of Aug 16, 2026. On preference Elo, Kimi K3 is ahead by 158 points (1,528 vs 1,370; seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). On SWE-bench coding, Kimi K3 resolves 73.8% versus 58.4% (seed-bootstrap (Aug 1, 2026)). Kimi K3 streams faster (68 tok/s) while Llama 3.1 405B is the cheaper output token ($3.5/1M). 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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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.

Kimi K3 (8)vsLlama 3.1 405B (2)

Kimi K3: 8W (80%)Overall: Kimi K3Llama 3.1 405B: 2W (20%)

← Kimi K3Llama 3.1 405B →

Kimi K3 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

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

Preference Elo

1,528vs1,370

Coding Elo

1,535vs1,385

SWE-bench

73.8%vs58.4%

LiveBench

69.5%vs61.2%

GPQA Diamond

88.4%vs75.2%

Kimi K3: 5WLlama 3.1 405B: 0W

Kimi K3 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

68 tok/svs42 tok/s

Time to first token

290 msvs360 ms

Kimi K3: 2WLlama 3.1 405B: 0W

Llama 3.1 405B (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$15/1Mvs$3.5/1M

Input price

$3/1Mvs$1.25/1M

Context window

1Mvs128k

Kimi K3: 1WLlama 3.1 405B: 2W

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

Preference Elo

Kimi K3

158 pts advantage

Throughput Speed

Kimi K3

26 tok/s faster

Price Efficiency

Llama 3.1 405B

$11.50/1M cheaper

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

—

Elo

High is better

+12%1,528

EloHigh is better

1,370

Code Elo

High is better

+11%1,535

Code EloHigh is better

1,385

LiveBench

High is better

+14%69.5%

LiveBenchHigh is better

61.2%

SWE-bench

High is better

+26%73.8%

SWE-benchHigh is better

58.4%

GPQA

High is better

+18%88.4%

GPQAHigh is better

75.2%

TTFT

Low is better

+24%290 ms

TTFTLow is better

360 ms

Speed

High is better

+62%68 tok/s

SpeedHigh is better

42 tok/s

In $

Low is better

$3/1M

In $Low is better

$1.25/1M+140%

Out $

Low is better

$15/1M

Out $Low is better

$3.5/1M+329%

Context

High is better

+719%1M

ContextHigh is better

128k

Interactive Simulator

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

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

Save up to 71% with Llama 3.1 405B

Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo

Quick Presets:

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

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

Kimi K3$330.00 / mo

In: $105.00Out: $225.00

Llama 3.1 405B$96.25 / mo

In: $43.75Out: $52.50

Estimated Cost Delta

Llama 3.1 405B is estimated to save $233.75/month ($2,805/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
Llama 3.1 405B:Pick Llama 3.1 405B 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 agentsKimi K3

Higher SWE-bench (73.8%).

High-volume chatLlama 3.1 405B

Lower output list price ($3.5/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIKimi K3

Lower TTFT (290 ms).

Long-document RAGKimi K3

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	Llama 3.1 405B	Lower output list price ($3.5/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Kimi K3	Lower TTFT (290 ms).
Long-document RAG	Kimi K3	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

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

Moonshot

Kimi K3

Elo 1,528

LiveBench69.5%

SWE-bench73.8%

Speed68 tok/s

Output cost$15/1M

Llama 3.1 405B

Elo 1,370

LiveBench61.2%

SWE-bench58.4%

Speed42 tok/s

Output cost$3.5/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Kimi K3 or Llama 3.1 405B?: 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, Kimi K3 or Llama 3.1 405B?: Kimi K3 leads SWE-bench at 73.8% vs 58.4%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.
Which is cheaper to run in production?: Llama 3.1 405B output tokens are $3.5/1M versus $15/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, Kimi K3 or Llama 3.1 405B?: 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 128k.
Can I self-host either model?: Llama 3.1 405B 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. Kimi K3 and Llama 3.1 405B Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All Kimi K3 matchups →|All Llama 3.1 405B matchups →

Kimi K3 vs MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 (previous kimi)Llama 3.1 405B vs Llama 3.1 70B (next llama)Llama 4 Maverick vs Kimi K3 MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 vs Kimi K3 Gemini 3.7 Flash vs Kimi K3 Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Kimi K3

Kimi K3 vs Llama 3.1 405B benchmark

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

Kimi K3 (8)vsLlama 3.1 405B (2)

Kimi K3: 8W (80%)Overall: Kimi K3Llama 3.1 405B: 2W (20%)

← Kimi K3Llama 3.1 405B →

Kimi K3 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

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

Preference Elo

1,528vs1,370

Coding Elo

1,535vs1,385

SWE-bench

73.8%vs58.4%

LiveBench

69.5%vs61.2%

GPQA Diamond

88.4%vs75.2%

Kimi K3: 5WLlama 3.1 405B: 0W

Kimi K3 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

68 tok/svs42 tok/s

Time to first token

290 msvs360 ms

Kimi K3: 2WLlama 3.1 405B: 0W

Llama 3.1 405B (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$15/1Mvs$3.5/1M

Input price

$3/1Mvs$1.25/1M

Context window

1Mvs128k

Kimi K3: 1WLlama 3.1 405B: 2W

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsKimi K3

Higher SWE-bench (73.8%).

High-volume chatLlama 3.1 405B

Lower output list price ($3.5/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIKimi K3

Lower TTFT (290 ms).

Long-document RAGKimi K3

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	Llama 3.1 405B	Lower output list price ($3.5/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	Kimi K3	Lower TTFT (290 ms).
Long-document RAG	Kimi K3	Larger window (1M).
Screenshots / vision	Kimi K3	Kimi K3 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, Kimi K3 or Llama 3.1 405B?

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, Kimi K3 or Llama 3.1 405B?

Kimi K3 leads SWE-bench at 73.8% vs 58.4%. SWE-bench is one harness, not your repo.

Which is cheaper to run in production?

Llama 3.1 405B output tokens are $3.5/1M versus $15/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.

Which is faster, Kimi K3 or Llama 3.1 405B?

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 128k.

Can I self-host either model?

Llama 3.1 405B 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. Kimi K3 and Llama 3.1 405B Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

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Interactive Comparison Diagram

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Intelligence & Reasoning

Speed & Latency

Pricing & Capacity

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Kimi K3

Kimi K3

Llama 3.1 405B

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

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CompareLLM Matrix

Kimi K3

Llama 3.1 405B

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

Llama 3.1 405B

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

Kimi K3

Llama 3.1 405B

Frequently Asked Questions

Related news

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons